Joë Bousquet (Narbonne, March 19, 1897 - Carcassonne, September 28, 1950) was a French poet.

Wounded on May 27, 1918 at Vailly near the Aisne battlelines at the end of the First World War, he was paralysed for the rest of his life, and lived a life largely bedridden, surrounded by his books. His physical incapacity and constant pain (for which he took opium) caused a retreat from the world, but also became the starting point for an extensive body of poetry and writing. He contributed poetry to the Carcassonne poetic review Cahiers du Sud, and carried on a correspondence with many writers and friends, including Louis Aragon, André Gide, Paul Éluard, and Max Ernst. His home in Carcassonne, France is now a museum in his memory.

Bousquet became friends with the surrealists, and his poetry is often associated with them. He also purchased paintings by Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Jean Fautrier, Wols, André Masson and Hans Bellmer, and was modeled by René Iché and painted by Jean Dubuffet.

His work was admired by many famous French writers of the 20th century, including René Char, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Gide, Valéry, and, most notably, Gilles Deleuze.

Poetry

• Le Mal d'enfance, (Denoël, 1939), illustred by René Iché
• Traduit du silence, (Gallimard, 1941)
• Le Meneur de lune, (1946)
• La Connaissance du soir, (Éditions du Raisin, 1946)

References

This article is based in part on the article Joë Bousquet from the French Wikipedia, retrieved on September 30, 2006.

External links

• Painting of Joë Bousquet in bed, painting by Jean Dubuffet, 1947.
• Joë Bousquet (in French)
• Joë Bousquet (in French)
• Joë Bousquet (in French)
• Joë Bousquet (in French)