René Char Bio-Bibliography

c.1836	Charlemagne, a foundling, ill-treated by the Mont Ventoux farmers with whom he has been put out to work, flees southward until he reaches L’Isle-sur-Sorgue, where he finds work with a merchant of plaster. He will inherit the business, and pass it on to his son, Émile, who shortens the name (now Char Magne) to the simple syllable Char.
1885	Émile Char marries Julia Rouget, the daughter of a master-mason; when she dies of tuberculosis, he marries his young sister-in-law, Marie-Thérèse, and they have four children: Julia, Albert, Émilienne, and René-Émile.
1907	Birth of René-Émile, June 14, at “Les Névons,” L’Isle-sur-Sorgue.
1918–	Death of Émile Char. René, after boarding at the Lycée d’Avignon, is in Marseille at seventeen, supposed to be applying himself to business classes; he is reading: Plutarch, Villon, Racine, Baudelaire. He is employed with a fruit merchant in Cavaillon.
1926	Paul Éluard publishes Capitale de la douleur, a book which will be of great importance to René Char, who is in Nîmes in 1927, doing his military service, and collaborating with local literary reviews.
1928	Les Cloches sur le coeur, published in Nîmes, with Le Rouge et le Noir, will later be disavowed, except for the poem “Le Veilleur naïf.”
1929	Arsenal is published with Méridien, in Nîmes, and Éluard comes to L’Isle-sur-Sorgue; he will later introduce Char to Breton, Crevel, and Aragon in Paris. Char joins the surrealist movement in December, joins their battles, and publishes in La Révolution surréaliste. (“Profession de foi du sujet” in no. 12.)
1930	Ralentir travaux, written by Breton, Char, and Éluard. With the Éditions surréalistes–José Corti, he publishes Artine, a long poem, and, in 1931, L’Action de la justice est éteinte.
1932	Marriage with Georgette Goldstein. He writes Abondance viendra (1933).
1934	Counter-manifestations in Paris against the right wing forces; Char signs Breton’s anti-fascist manifesto. Le Marteau sans maître, a collection of his poems since 1927, appears with Corti, prefaced by Tzara, illustrated by Kandinsky. Char drifts away from the surrealists as a group, although remaining close friends with Éluard and Crevel. He returns to L’Isle-sur-Sorgue.
1935	Tzara and his wife, the painter Greta Knutson, visit Char in L’Isle. Crevel commits suicide.
1936–1939	Char falls ill with septicemia, and recuperates over the next two years in the mountain village of Céreste, and then on the coast with Georgette, seeing Éluard and his wife Nusch frequently. Writes Moulin premier, his first “aphoristic verses.” Éluard places it with Guy Levis Mano, a poet-printer who also publishes Placard pour un chemin des écoliers, dedicated to the children of Spain, and, in 1938, Dehors la nuit est gouvernée. The epic poem Le Visage nuptial is published by the Imprimerie Beresniak. Char contributes to the Cahiers d’Art, edited by Christan Zervos, whose wife Yvonne will become an intimate and resourceful friend.
1939	Called up, stationed on the frontier in Alsace; when the Germans invade France (May–June 1940), he fights his way down to the south of France, where he is demobilized in the summer of 1940. Returns to Georgette and L’Isle, but denounced as an anti-Fascist married to a Jew. By 1941, back in Céreste, he establishes contacts with other resistance networks, and in 1942, as “le Capitaine Alexandre,” engages in sabotage missions. Officially enrolls in the Forces Françaises Combattantes and as regional head of a partisan group.
1944	After the Liberation, resumes publication of his poems in reviews: Fontaine, Cahiers du Sud, Cahiers d’Art.
1945	Publishes Seuls demeurent (Gallimard), bringing him the friendship of Braque and Camus, as well as general acclaim. In 1946 Feuillets d’Hypnos, his wartime journal, appears with Gallimard. In Nice, he meets Matisse, who will illustrate Le Poème pulvérisé in 1948, for the Editions Fontaine.
1947	Yvonne Zervos organizes an exhibition of painters at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, and Char writes on Braque’s painting.
1948	First performance on the radio of his play Le Soleil des eaux, with music by Pierre Boulez. Fureur et mystère appears with Gallimard, including his writing from 1938–44. In 1949 publishes Le Soleil des eaux, illustrated by Braque, with another play: Claire (Gallimard.) Divorced from Georgette in July.
1950	Publishes, at Gallimard, Les Matinaux, these “poems from my temperate slope,” written at Le Rebanqué chez Madame Mathieu. Char helps edit Margerite Caetani’s Botteghe Oscure.
1951	Meets Nicolas de Staël, about whose work he writes Bois de Staël; Poèmes, illustrated with woodcuts by de Staël. In April, A une Sérénité crispée (Gallimard), illustrated by Louis Fernandez. Char’s mother dies in June.
1952	Éluard dies, and also, Louis Curel (subject of the poem “Louis Curel de la Sorgue”).
1953	Publishes Lettera amorosa, later illustrated by Braque, and Le Rempart de brindilles with engravings by Wifredo Lam.
1955	Publishes Recherche de la base et du sommet (Gallimard), first edition of Char’s prose texts as a whole, then Poèmes des deux années with an etching by Giacometti. Death of de Staël in April. Char meets Heidegger through Jean Beaufret in Paris. The first of three summer visits of the philosopher to the Vaucluse as Char’s guest. In 1956, La Bibliothèque est en feu, with an etching by Braque. Boulez’ musical setting of Le Visage nuptial in Cologne. Les Compagnons dans le jardin (Louis Broder), with etchings by Zao Wou-Ki.
1960	Death of Camus; death also of Reverdy, and of Pasternak, with whom Char had been corresponding.
1961	Publishes L’Inclémence lointaine, illustrated by Vieira Da Silva (Pierre Bérès). Char buys Les Busclats, a small house on a hill overlooking L’Isle-sur-Sorgue, where he will live for the rest of his life, with frequent stays in Paris.
1962	La Parole en archipel (Gallimard) appears, and in 1964, Commune présence (Gallimard), poems regrouped by Char according to major themes.
1965	L’Age cassant (Corti), appears, and in December, Retour amont (G.L.M.) with etchings by Giacometti. Char leads the fight against the implantation of nuclear rockets near the Mont Ventoux (La Provence point oméga).
1966	Death of Giacometti in January. Breton dies in the fall.
1967	Les Transparents (P.A.B.) appears, with engravings by Picasso, and Trois Coups sous les arbres: théâtre de verdure (Gallimard).
1968	Suffers a stroke, alluded to in Le Chien de coeur (G.L.M.) with a lithograph by Miró. L’Effroi la joie (Au vent d’Arles), and Dent prompte, illustrated by Max Ernst (Galerie Lucie Weil, 1969).
1970	Death of Yvonne (see “La Soif hospitalière” and “La Sorgue: Chanson pour Yvonne”).
1971	Publishes Le Nu perdu (Gallimard), a collection of his writings from 1964–70. Exhibition centered on the work of Char at the Maeght Foundation.
1972	La Nuit talismanique (Skira), illustrated by the poet with paintings and engravings on bark done during a period of insomnia in the 1950s.
1973	Death of Picasso, as Char is writing the preface to the painter’s exhibit at the Palais des Papes: Picasso sous les vents étésiens.
1975	Publishes Contre une maison sèche (Jean Hugues), with engravings by Wifredo Lam, and Aromates chasseurs (Gallimard).
1977	Publishes Chants de la Balandrane (Gallimard).
1978	Suffers his first heart attack, in the beginning of August.
1979	Publishes Fenêtres dormantes et porte sur le toit (Gallimard).
1980	Exhibition of Char’s manuscripts illustrated by a great range of contemporary artists, at the Bibliothèque Nationale.
1981	Publishes La Planche de vivre, translations of poems from various languages, in collaboration with Tina Jolas, showing in particular his admiration of Tsvetaeva, Akhmatova, Pasternak, and Mandelstam.
1983	Char’s Oeuvres complètes appear with La Pléiade (Gallimard).
1985	Les Voisinages de Van Gogh (Gallimard) commemorates the countryside around St. Rémy de Provence, revisited. Second heart attack in the fall.
1987	Marriage with Marie-Claude de Saint-Seine, in the fall. Le Gisant mis en lumière, illustrated by Alexandre Galpérine. In December, Char gives the manuscript of Éloge d’une Soupçonnée to Gallimard.
1988	Char dies of heart failure on February 19. The Éloge d’une soupçonnée appears posthumously in May.
1990	In connection with the Avignon Festival, an exhibition of paintings and manuscripts relating to Char, organized by Marie-Claude Char, is held at the Palais des Papes, as well as an international colloquium.