- René Daumal
René Daumal (16 March, 1908 -
21 May, 1944 ) was a French writer, philosopher andpoet . He was born inBoulzicourt , Ardennes,France .In his late teens his avant-garde poetry was published in France's leading journals, and in his early twenties, although courted by
André Breton co-founded, as a counter toSurrealism andDada , a literary journal, "Le Grand Jeu" with three friends, collectively known as the Simplists, including poetRoger Gilbert-Lecomte . He is known best in the U.S. for two novels "A Night of Serious Drinking " and theallegorical novel "" both based upon his friendship with Alexander de Salzmann, a pupil ofG. I. Gurdjieff .Daumal was self-taught in the
Sanskrit language and translated some of theTripitaka Buddhist canon into the French language, as well as translating the literature of the JapaneseZen scholarD.T. Suzuki into French.He married Vera Milanova, the former wife of the poet Hendrik Kramer; after Daumal's death, she married the landscape architect
Russell Page .Daumal's sudden and premature death of
tuberculosis onMay 21 ,1944 inParis may have been hastened by youthful experiments with drugs and psychoactive chemicals, includingcarbon tetrachloride . He died leaving his novel "Mount Analogue" unfinished, having worked on it until the day of his death.The motion picture "Holy Mountain" by
Alejandro Jodorowsky is based largely on Daumal's "Mount Analogue".Bibliography
Works by René Daumal in English translation
*"Le Contre-Ciel (Le contre-ciel)", Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 2005.
*"A Fundamental Experiment", New York / Madras: Hanuman Books, 1987.
*"The Lie of the Truth and Other Parables from the Way of Liberation", New York / Madras: Hanuman Books, 1989.
*"Mount Analogue (Le mont analogue)", Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 2004.
*"Mugle and the Silk (Mugle; La soie)", New York, Edwin Mellen Press, 1997.
*"A Night of Serious Drinking (La grande beuverie)", Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 2003.
*"The Powers of the Word (1927-1943) (Les pouvoirs de la parole)", San Francisco: City Lights, 1991.
*'Rasa or Knowledge of the Self'Essays On Indian Aesthetics and Selected Sanskrit Studies. New York: New Directions, 1982.* ed. Claudio Rugafiori, transl. Louise Landes Levi, Repr. Kathamndu, Nepal, Shivastan, 2002 & 2006 (each edition 333 copies).*"You've Always Been Wrong (Tu t'es toujours trompé)", Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
Works in English on René Daumal
*Phil Powrie, "René Daumal and Roger Gilbert-Lecomte: A bibliography", London: Grant & Cutler, 1988.
*Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt, "René Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide", New York: Suny Press, 1999.External links
* [http://www.gurdjieff-legacy.org/70links/bk_voices2.htm "Voices in the Dark"]
* [http://www.gurdjieff.org/daumal1.htm "Holy War"]
* [http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6584&poem=26484 "Skin of Light"]
* [http://www.deaddrunkdublin.com/poems/rene_daumal/poetry_black_poetry_white.html " Poetry Black Poetry White"]
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