René Daumal

René Daumal (born March 16, 1908 in Boulzicourt , Ardennes department , † May 21, 1944 in Paris ) was a French writer.

As a teenager, Daumal published avant-garde poems in French literary journals. Since the beginning of his twenties he has dealt with Dadaism and Surrealism . With Roger Gilbert-Lecomte he founded the literary magazine Le Grand Jeu, which appeared in 1928-30 .

He married Vera Milanova after she was divorced from Hendrik Cramer (1894–1944); they both belonged to the artist group Le Grand Jeu . Daumal was friends with Alexander von Salzmann and his wife Jeanne de Salzmann , an important student of the esoteric Georges I. Gurdjieff . In addition to lyrical and prose poems , he wrote two short stories that are shaped by Gurdjieff's teaching: La Grande Beuverie and Le Mont Analogue. Roman d'aventures alpines, non euclidiennes et symboliquement authentiques . The latter did not appear posthumously until 1952.

Daumal learned Sanskrit , he translated Buddhist literature and works by Ernest Hemingway into French.

His story Le Grand Magicien formed the basis for Elisabet Gustafsson's film The Great Magician (Den store trollkarlen, 2007). Jem Cohen shot a short film in cooperation with Patti Smith in 2008 for the 100th birthday of Daumal.

expenditure

• Mugle . Bilingual edition. Translated from Maximilian Gilleßen. Verlag Zero sharp, Berlin 2020.
• The big binge . Translated by Brigitte Weidmann . Publisher Zero sharp, Berlin 2018.
• The mountain analog. A non-Euclidean, in the symbolic sense authentic alpine adventure novel. Translated from Maximilian Gilleßen. Design by Anton Stuckardt, Simon Knebl, Andrea di Serego, Arno Schlipf, Leonie Lude. Publisher Zero sharp, Berlin 2017
• The analog . Extracts. Translated by Albrecht Fabri . Düsseldorf 1964

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Selection from Le Grand jeu , in German.
2. ↑ The mirror
3. ^ Cohen Films