- Abbaye de Créteil
Abbaye de Créteil was a "
phalanstère ", a utopian community, founded in the fall of 1906 by the poetsGeorges Duhamel etCharles Vildrac . It was closed down by its members early in 1908.Inspired by the "Abbaye de Thélème," a fictional creation by
Rabelais in his great novel "Gargantua ", Duhamel and Vildrac settled inCréteil , just to the southeast ofParis , in a house in a park-like setting along theMarne River .Their aim was to establish a place of freedom and friendship conducive, they thought, to artistic and literary creativity, far from the usual styles and conventions of the day.
Around the two founders gathered a group including the writers René Arcos, Henri-Martin Barzun and Alexandre Mercereau) and the painter
Albert Gleizes . Henri-Martin Barzun (father of the historian and cultural criticJacques Barzun ) put his fortune to the service of his friends at the "Abbaye de Créteil".The group had the concrete goal of creating a publishing house that might, they hoped, bring in sufficient income to support the "Abbaye". The typographer Lucien Linard, a friend of Albert Gleizes, furnished the printing press. From January 1907 through January 1908, some twenty books were published by the "Abbaye".
Additional writers and artists came to enrich the group at the "Abbaye": the poet
Pierre Jean Jouve , the musician Albert Doyen, the illustrator Berthold Mahn, the painter Henri Doucet and Léon Balzagette, the French translator of the "Leaves of Grass " by the American poetWalt Whitman . The writerJules Romains , founder ofunanimism , was friends with the group.The "Abbaye" attracted much interest but, unfortunately, not much revenue and the young members of the "Abbaye" found themselves forced to close their beloved "Abbaye" on January 28, 1908. Its publishing house survived for a while and the friends continued to get together every month for a "dîner des copains" (dinner of pals).
Some works printed by the "éditions de l’Abbaye"
* René Arcos, "La Tragédie des espaces", 1906
*Georges Duhamel , "Des légendes, des batailles", 1907
* Alexandre Mercereau, "Gens d’ici et d’ailleurs", 1907
*Jules Romains , "La Vie unanime", 1909
*Charles Vildrac , "Images et mirages", 1907
* Lucien Linard printed the first book of poetry byPierre Jean Jouve , "Artificiel", a fronticepiece byAlbert Gleizes , 1909.ource
This entry is based on a translation of the entry to [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbaye_de_Cr%C3%A9teilthe the "Abbaye de Créteil" in the French Wikipedia] (on 22 October 2007)
External links
* [http://www.duhamel-abbaye-de-creteil.com/ Site des Amis de Georges Duhamel et de l'Abbaye de Créteil]
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