Francis de Miomandre
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Francis de Miomandre (22 May 1880, in Tours – 1 August 1959, in Saint-Brieuc) was a French novelist and well-known translator from Spanish into French.
Biography
He was born in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, the son of a salesman Gilbert Durand and of Thérèse de Miomandre. He kept his mother's name as his nom de plume. In 1888 he moved with his parents to Marseille and stayed there until 1898, studying at the Jesuit College of St. Ignatius in Marseille. At the same time he befriended a group of young writers. In 1894 they founded a magazine la Revue Méditerranéenne in which he published his early work. In 1900 he met Camille Mockler in Saint-Leu-La-Forêt.
In 1904 Miomandre published his first book "Thoughts and memories" with a circulation of two hundred and twenty copies. He worked with the magazine « le Mercure de France » (Paris) «Antée» (Bruges) and «L'Occident». Francis began to sell paintings at a gallery called Berngayma, and later worked as a secretary to his director - Félix Fénéon. Later, he served as secretary of the editorial board of the journal «L'Art et les artistes» until 1912. He eventually won the Prix Goncourt in 1908 for his novel Écrit sur l'eau.... His novels are highly imaginative and put together with the genuine talent of a romancer who has traveled far and wide at his own study table.
Miomandre wrote thousands of articles for over two hundred magazines and newspapers.[1] This work was his main livelihood. From time to time wrote in the edition Marges, New French Review, Manuscrit autographe and les Cahiers du Sud, and he had a column in the chronicle Nouvelles littéraires from 1922 until his death in 1959. In addition, in 1926, he regularly wrote literary critiques, and collaborated with other magazines. His first critical essays were published in the book "The Face" in 1907. Four years later, he released another collection of essays.
At the same time, he became one of the foremost translators of Spanish. In 1918 Miomandre released "Selected pages" by Jose Enrique Rodo, in 1921 - "Twenty-four sonnets" by Luis de Góngora. Among the authors who Miomandre translated were Miguel de Unamuno, Ventura Garcia Calderon, Miguel de Cervantes, Miguel Angel Asturias, Lydia Cabrera, Horacio Quiroga, Benito Perez Galdos, Enrique Rodríguez Larreta, Lazcano Tags, Eugenio d'Ors, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Jose Martí and others. There are about fifty translated works.
Miomandre wrote articles for many Spanish and Latin American editions, and from 1946 to 1956 was editor of the category "Iberian Literature" for the magazine «Hommes et Mondes». According to Claude Kuffona,[1] every morning Miomandre translated ten pages of text, and in the afternoon and evening worked on critical articles or his own literary works. He wrote easily and critics overwhelmingly recognized the lightness and clarity of his language.
Miomandre also acted as a screenwriter. In 1923 he wrote the screenplay for the film "Shelter of Love, or The Return of Uncle Arsene," based on his novel of the same name.
From 1908 to 1911, he participated in the Club des longues moustaches (Club of long whiskers).
Works
Novels
- Écrit sur de l'eau... Prix Goncourt (1908)
- Aventures merveilleuses d'Yvan Danubsko, prince valaque (1909)
- Le Vent et la Poussière. (1909)
- L'Ingénu (1910)
- Au Bon Soleil, scènes de la vie provençale (1911)
- Digression peacockienne (1911)
- Gazelle (Mémoire d'une tortue) (1910)
- L'Ingénu (1911)
- Histoire de Pierre Pons, pantin de feutre, roman pour les enfants (1912)
- ...D'amour et d'eau fraîche (1913)
- L'Aventure de Thérèse Beauchamps (1913)
- Le Veau d'Or et la Vache Enragée (1917)
- Pantomime anglaise (1918)
- Voyages d’un sédentaire (1918)
- La Cabane d’amour ou le Retour de l’oncle Arsène (1919)
- Le Mariage de Geneviève (1920)
- L'Amour sous les oliviers (1921)
- Les Taupes (1922)
- Ces Petits Messieurs (1922)
- Le Greluchon sentimental (1923)
- La Naufragée. (1924)
- La Jeune Fille au jardin, unedited novel (1924)
- Contes des cloches de cristal (1925)
- La Bonbonnière d'or (1925)
- L’Ombre et l’Amour. Journal d’un homme timide. (1925)
- Le Radjah de Mazulipatam (1926)
- L’Amour de Mademoiselle Duverrier (1926)
- Olympe et ses amis (1927)
- Les Baladins d’amour (1928)
- Passy-Auteuil ou Le vieux monsieur du square. Monologue intérieur. (1928)
- Soleil de Grasse (1929)
- Baroque (1929)
- Le Jeune Homme des palaces (1929)
- Le Patriarche (1919)
- Vie du sage Prospero (1930)
- Jeux de glaces (1930)
- Âmes russes 1910 (1931)
- Les Égarements de Blandine (1932)
- Otarie. arabesque amoureuse et marine. Dedicated to Blaise Cendrars. (1933)
- Le Zombie (1935)
- Le Cabinet chinois (1936)
- Direction Étoile (1937)
- L'Invasion du paradis (1937)
- Le Fil d’Ariane (1941)
- Portes. (1943)
- Fugues (1943)
- Les Jardins de Marguilène (1943)
- Le Raton laveur et le maître d’hôtel (1944)
- Primevère et l’Ange (1945)
- L'Âne de Buridan (1946)
- La Conférence (1946)
- Rencontres dans la Nuit (1954)
- L’Œuf de Colomb (1954)
- Aorasie (1957)
- Caprices (1960)
Poetry
- Les Reflets et les souvenirs (1904)
- Samsara (1931)
References
- ^ a b Contre-feux, la revue littéraire. Eric Dussert. Miomandre l’enchanteur
External links
- Works by or about Francis de Miomandre at the Internet Archive
- v
- t
- e
- 1903 John Antoine Nau
- 1904 Léon Frapié
- 1905 Claude Farrère
- 1906 Jérôme Tharaud and Jean Tharaud
- 1907 Émile Moselly
- 1908 Francis de Miomandre
- 1909 Marius-Ary Leblond
- 1910 Louis Pergaud
- 1911 Alphonse de Châteaubriant
- 1912 André Savignon
- 1913 Marc Elder
- 1914 Adrien Bertrand
- 1915 René Benjamin
- 1916 Henri Barbusse
- 1917 Henry Malherbe
- 1918 Georges Duhamel
- 1919 Marcel Proust
- 1920 Ernest Pérochon
- 1921 René Maran
- 1922 Henri Béraud
- 1923 Lucien Fabre
- 1924 Thierry Sandre
- 1925 Maurice Genevoix
- 1926 Henri Deberly
- 1927 Maurice Bedel
- 1928 Maurice Constantin-Weyer
- 1929 Marcel Arland
- 1930 Henri Fauconnier
- 1931 Jean Fayard
- 1932 Guy Mazeline
- 1933 André Malraux
- 1934 Roger Vercel
- 1935 Joseph Peyré
- 1936 Maxence Van der Meersch
- 1937 Charles Plisnier
- 1938 Henri Troyat
- 1939 Philippe Hériat
- 1940 Francis Ambrière
- 1941 Henri Pourrat
- 1942 Marc Bernard
- 1943 Marius Grout
- 1944 Elsa Triolet
- 1945 Jean-Louis Bory
- 1946 Jean-Jacques Gautier
- 1947 Jean-Louis Curtis
- 1948 Maurice Druon
- 1949 Robert Merle
- 1950 Paul Colin
- 1951 Julien Gracq
- 1952 Béatrix Beck
- 1953 Pierre Gascar
- 1954 Simone de Beauvoir
- 1955 Roger Ikor
- 1956 Romain Gary
- 1957 Roger Vailland
- 1958 Francis Walder
- 1959 André Schwarz-Bart
- 1960 Vintilă Horia
- 1961 Jean Cau
- 1962 Anna Langfus
- 1963 Armand Lanoux
- 1964 Georges Conchon
- 1965 Jacques Borel
- 1966 Edmonde Charles-Roux
- 1967 André Pieyre de Mandiargues
- 1968 Bernard Clavel
- 1969 Félicien Marceau
- 1970 Michel Tournier
- 1971 Jacques Laurent
- 1972 Jean Carrière
- 1973 Jacques Chessex
- 1974 Pascal Lainé
- 1975 Émile Ajar (Romain Gary)
- 1976 Patrick Grainville
- 1977 Didier Decoin
- 1978 Patrick Modiano
- 1979 Antonine Maillet
- 1980 Yves Navarre
- 1981 Lucien Bodard
- 1982 Dominique Fernandez
- 1983 Frédérick Tristan
- 1984 Marguerite Duras
- 1985 Yann Queffélec
- 1986 Michel Host
- 1987 Tahar Ben Jelloun
- 1988 Érik Orsenna
- 1989 Jean Vautrin
- 1990 Jean Rouaud
- 1991 Pierre Combescot
- 1992 Patrick Chamoiseau
- 1993 Amin Maalouf
- 1994 Didier Van Cauwelaert
- 1995 Andreï Makine
- 1996 Pascale Roze
- 1997 Patrick Rambaud
- 1998 Paule Constant
- 1999 Jean Echenoz
- 2000 Jean-Jacques Schuhl
- 2001 Jean-Christophe Rufin
- 2002 Pascal Quignard
- 2003 Jacques-Pierre Amette
- 2004 Laurent Gaudé
- 2005 François Weyergans
- 2006 Jonathan Littell
- 2007 Gilles Leroy
- 2008 Atiq Rahimi
- 2009 Marie NDiaye
- 2010 Michel Houellebecq
- 2011 Alexis Jenni
- 2012 Jérôme Ferrari
- 2013 Pierre Lemaitre
- 2014 Lydie Salvayre
- 2015 Mathias Énard
- 2016 Leïla Slimani
- 2017 Éric Vuillard
- 2018 Nicolas Mathieu
- 2019 Jean-Paul Dubois
- 2020 Hervé Le Tellier
- 2021 Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
- 2022 Brigitte Giraud
- 2023 Jean-Baptiste Andrea