- Jean Ray
Jean Ray is the best-known
pseudonym among the many used by Raymundus Joannes de Kremer (8 July 1887 -17 September 1964 ), a prolific BelgianFrench language writer. Although he wrote straightjournalism , stories for young readers in Dutch under the name John Flanders, scenarios forcomic strips anddetective stories , he is best known for his tales of thefantastique written under the name Jean Ray. In the English-speaking world, he is famous for his macabre novel "Malpertuis " (1943), which was filmed byHarry Kümel in 1971 (starringOrson Welles ). He also used the pseudonyms King Ray, Alix R. Bantam and Sailor John, among others.Biography
Ray was born in
Ghent , his father a minor port official, his mother the head of a girls' school. Ray was a fairly successful student at school but failed to complete his university studies, and from 1910 to 1919 he worked in clerical posts in the city administration.By the early 1920s he had joined the editorial team of the "Journal de Gand". Later he also joined the monthly "L'Ami du Livre". His first book, "Les Contes du Whisky", a collection of fantastic and uncanny stories, was published in 1925.
In 1926 he was charged with
embezzlement and sentenced to six years in prison, but served only two. During his imprisonment he wrote two of his best-known long stories, "The Shadowy Street" and "The Mainz Psalter". From the time of his release in 1929 until the outbreak of theSecond World War , he wrote virtually non-stop.Between 1933 and 1940, Ray produced over a hundred tales in a series of
detective stories , "The Adventures ofHarry Dickson , the AmericanSherlock Holmes ". He had been hired to translate a series from the German, but Ray found the stories so bad that he suggested to hisAmsterdam publisher that he should re-write them instead. The publisher agreed, provided only that each story be about the same length as the original, and match the book's cover illustration. The Harry Dickson stories are admired by thefilm director Alain Resnais among others. In the winter of 1959-1960 Resnais met with Ray in the hope of making a film based on the Harry Dickson character, but nothing came of the project.During the Second World War Ray's prodigious output slowed, but he was able to publish his best works in French, under the name Jean Ray: "Le Grand Nocturne" (1942), "La Cité de l'Indicible Peur", also adapted into a film starring
Bourvil , "Malpertuis", "Les Cercles de L'Epouvante" (all 1943), "Les Derniers Contes de Canterbury" (1944) and "Le Livre des Fantômes" (1947).After the war he was again reduced to hackwork, writing comic-strip scenarios under the name of John Flanders. He was rescued from obscurity by
Raymond Queneau andRoland Stragliati , whose influence got "Malpertuis" reprinted in French in 1956.A few weeks before his death, he wrote his own mock
epitaph in a letter to his friend Albert van Hageland: "Ci gît Jean Ray/homme sinistre/qui ne fut rien/pas même ministre" ("Here lies Jean Ray/A gent sinister/who was nothing/not even a minister").elected bibliography
in english
* "Ghouls in my Grave" (Berkley Publishing Corporation, 1965, F1071) translated from french by Lowell Bair
** Gold Teeth
** The Shadowy Street
** I killed Alfred Heavenrock
** The Cemetery Watchman
** The Mainz Psalter
** The Last Traveler
** The Black Mirror
** Mr Glass Changes Directionin french (Jean Ray)
* "Les Contes du Whisky" [The Tales Of Whiskey] (1925, rev. 1946)
* "La Croisière des Ombres" [The Cruise Of Shadows] (1932)
* "Le Grand Nocturne" [The Great Darkness] (1942)
* "Les Cercles de l'Epouvante" [The Circles Of Terror] (1943)
* "Malpertuis" (1943; transl. Atlas Press, 1998)
* "La Cité de l'Indicible Peur" [The City Of The Unspeakable Fear] (1943)
* "Les Derniers Contes de Canterbury" [The Last Tales Of Canterbury] (1944)
* "La Gerbe Noire" (editor) (1947)
* "Le Livre des Fantômes" [The Book Of Ghosts] (1947; rev. 1966)
* "25 Histoires Noires et Fantastiques" [25 Dark And Fantastic Tales] (1961)
* "Le Carrousel des Malefices" [The Spellbound Merry-Go-Round] (1964)
* "Les Contes Noirs du Golf" [Dark Tales Of Golf] (1964)
* "Saint Judas-de-la-Nuit" [St. Judas-Of-The-Night] (1964)in dutch (John Flanders)
* "Spoken op de ruwe heide" [Ghosts on the heath] (1935)
* "Het monster van Borough" [The monster of Borough] (1948)
* "Geheimen van het Noorden" [Secrets of the North] (1948)
* "Het zwarte eiland" [The black island] (1948)See also
*
Harry Dickson
*Fantastique External links
* [http://www.facesoffantastic.com/lit_jeanray.html Jean Ray at "Faces of the Fantastic"]
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