Henri Thomas

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Henri Thomas (born December 7, 1912 in Anglemont , Département Vosges , † November 3, 1993 in Paris ) was a French writer and translator .

Life

Henri Thomas studied literature and philosophy at the Collège de Saint-Dié and the Lycée Henri IV in Paris, where one of his teachers was the philosopher Alain .

In 1938 he published his first poems in the magazine Mesures , in 1940 Gallimard printed his first novel Le Seau a charbon and in 1941 his first collection of poems. In 1942 he married the actress Colette Gibert. During the German occupation he ran the risk of being drafted by the Germans as a Lorraine. After the war in 1945 he was employed by Terre des Hommes . He then went to London as a translator for the BBC for ten years until 1958 . For two years he was a lecturer at Brandeis University in the USA . In 1957 he married Jacqueline le Béguec. In 1960 he received the Prix Prix ​​Médicis and in 1961 the Prix ​​Femina . In 1978 he founded the magazine Obsidiane , which published Samuel Beckett's first French texts. Thomas lived isolated from the Parisian scene on the island of Houat and on the Quiberon peninsula . He then spent the last few years in Paris. Thomas was friends with André Gide , Pierre Herbart and Jean Paulhan .

Thomas published twenty novels, twelve volumes of poetry as well as short stories, essays and diaries. In the French literary scene, it was hardly received. A translation into German by Paul Celan , who was acquainted with the author, was advertised on the German book market more under the name of the translator than under the name of the author.

Thomas translated works by Ernst Jünger , Goethe , Adalbert Stifter , Heinrich von Kleist , Achim von Arnim , Clemens Brentano and Hofmannsthal from German, works by William Faulkner , Melville and William Shakespeare from English , and Puschkin's works from Russian .

Works in German translation

  • The perjury. Novel . (Le parjure. Gallimard 1964) transl. Leopold Federmair , afterword Wolfgang Hermann . Klever, Vienna 2012 ISBN 978-3-902665-53-9
  • The promontory . Translator Paul Celan. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 2008 (German EA Das Kap.Hanser, Munich 1963)
  • The cinema in the barn. Novella . Übers. Leopold Federmair. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt 1999
  • The towers of Notre Dame . Translated by Thomas Laux. Boettcher, Düsseldorf 1988
  • The chap . Translated by Elmar Tophoven . Hanser, Munich 1963
  • John Perkins. Novel . Translated by Kurt Leonhard . Hanser, Munich 1961

literature

  • Alain Bosquet: Henri Thomas. Translated from Kristian Wachinger. In: Verena von der Heyden-Rynsch Ed .: Vive la littérature! Contemporary French literature. Hanser, Munich 1989, p. 182 (with photo) (first Le Monde , December 27, 1983)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Henri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French author
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Anglemont , Vosges department
DATE OF DEATH 3rd November 1993
Place of death Paris