Openwork Poetry and Prose André du Bouchet, Paul Auster, Hoyt Rogers

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Series:: The Margellos World Republic of Letters
Format:: Hardback
Publication date:: 28 Oct 2014
ISBN:: 9780300197631
Imprint:: Yale University Press
Dimensions:: 368 pages: 197 x 127 x 30mm

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A career retrospective of poetry and prose works by one of the under-recognized giants of French literature

André du Bouchet, a great innovator of twentieth-century letters, has yet to be fully recognized by a wide circle of international readers. This inviting volume sets out to remedy the oversight, introducing a selection of du Bouchet’s poetry and prose to English-language readers through the brilliant translations of Paul Auster and Hoyt Rogers. Openwork showcases pieces from the author’s entire trajectory, beginning with little-known pieces from the 1950s, followed by major poems from the 1960s, and concluding with works written or rewritten in the poet’s later decades.

Throughout his life, du Bouchet devoted himself to long walks in his beloved French countryside, jotting down entries in notebooks as he rambled. These notebooks—more than one hundred all together—have emerged as signal works in their own right, and their musings are well represented in this anthology.

André du Bouchet (1924–2001) is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest French poets of the twentieth century. He was also a prolific essayist on contemporary art and a versatile translator, producing French versions of Shakespeare, Hölderlin, Joyce, Mandelstam, and Pasternak. Paul Auster is known worldwide for his novels, as well as his films, memoirs, essays, and poetry. He is also an authority on French literature and a noted translator from the French. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Hoyt Rogers is a poet, writer of stories and essays, and translator from the French, German, Italian, and Spanish. He divides his time between the Dominican Republic and Italy.

“An exciting addition to contemporary French poetry available in translation . . . [Hoyt Rogers’] introduction [is] the most far-reaching essay on du Bouchet that I have ever read in English.”—John Taylor, Arts Fuse

“The translations themselves are marvelous. . . . Here we have a poet whose lines often contain worlds . . . a master of the image . . . a pure pleasure to read.”—Micah Mattix, Books and Culture

Longlisted for the 2015 Best Translated Book Award, poetry category -- organized by Three Percent, a resource for international literature based at the University of Rochester.