French / France
Robert Desnos, ce pirate tendre et fou
(Robert Desnos, that tender and crazy pirate)
David, Rémi
(text)
Joseph, Julie
(illus.)
[Paris]: Éditions À dos d’âne, [2018]. – 45 p.
(Series: Des graines et des guides: 8-12 ans et +)
ISBN 978-2-37606-065-9
Desnos, Robert | Writing | Surrealism | World War II (1939-1945) | Resistance | Biography
Reading age: 10+
White Ravens issue: 2018
Robert Desnos still remains one of the hidden greats of French 20th-century poetry, especially for readers outside of France. “A dos d’âne” publishing house honours the poet in this excellent, artful, precise short biography, which one can read in less than two hours. Author Rémi David expertly describes Desnos develop from a surrealistic language wizard to a politically engaged poet and journalist, who warned early on of war and fascism and who was one of the first to join the Résistance in the Second World War. After his arrest in 1944 in France, his path of torment began as he was sent to various German concentration camps, where he wrote his last poems in 1945. David’s book is no hagiography, but leaves room to see the contradictions and ruptures, as well as the zest for life of the man described by his poet friend Paul Éluard as “the bravest of all”.