Yves Bonnefoy

The Encyclopædia Britannica states that Bonnefoy was ″perhaps the most important French poet of the latter half of the 20th century.″

Yves Bonnefoy studied at Faculty of Arts of Paris, Lycée Descartes and University of Poitiers. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is poetry, essay and art criticism. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are essay. Residence is recorded at Tours. Employment is recorded with Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University and Brandeis University. Distinctions recorded are Prix Goncourt de la Poésie, Grand prix de littérature de la SGDL, Prix mondial Cino Del Duca and Balzan Prize.

• Name — Yves Bonnefoy • Birth Name — Yves Jean Bonnefoy • Born — 24 June 1923 • Birthplace — Tours, France • Died — 1 July 2016 • Place of death — Paris, France • Parents — Marius Elie-Bonnefoy Hélène Maury • Alma Mater — University of Paris

Bonnefoy was born in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, the son of Marius Elie Bonnefoy, a railroad worker, and Hélène Maury, a teacher. He studied mathematics and philosophy at the Universities of Poitiers and the Sorbonne in Paris. After the Second World War he travelled in Europe and the United States and studied art history. From 1945 to 1947 he was associated with the Surrealists in Paris (a short-lived influence that is at its strongest in his first published work, Traité du pianiste (1946)). But it was with the highly personal Du mouvement et de l'immobilité de Douve (On the Motion and Immobility of Douve, 1953) that Bonnefoy found his voice and that his name first came to public notice. Bonnefoy's style is remarkable for the deceptive simplicity of its vocabulary. Bonnefoy's work has been translated into English by, among others, Emily Grosholz, Galway Kinnell, John Naughton, Alan Baker, Hoyt Rogers, Antony Rudolf, Beverley Bie Brahic and Richard Stamelmann. In 1967 he joined with André du Bouchet, Gaëtan Picon, and Louis-René des Forêts to found L'éphémère, a journal of art and literature. Commenting on his work, Bonnefoy has said: One should not call oneself a poet. It would be pretentious. It would mean that one has resolved the problems poetry presents. Poet is a word one can use when speaking of others, if one admires them sufficiently. If someone asks me what I do, I say I'm a critic, or a historian. He taught literature at a number of universities in Europe and in the USA: Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts (1962–64); Centre Universitaire, Vincennes (1969–1970); Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Princeton University, New Jersey; University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut;Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; University of Geneva; University of Nice (1973–1976); University of Provence, Aix (1979–1981); and Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he was made an honorary member of the Academy of the Humanities and Sciences. In 1981, following the death of Roland Barthes, he was given the chair of comparative study of poetry at the Collège de France. Bonnefoy continued to work closely with painters throughout his career and wrote prefaces for artists’ books, including those by his friend Miklos Bokor. Bonnefoy died on 1 July 2016 at the age of 93 in Paris. President François Hollande stated of Bonnefoy on his death that he would be remembered for "elevating our language to its supreme degree of precision and beauty".

• Collections • 1968: On the Motion and Immobility of Douve. Translated by Galway Kinnell. (Ohio University Press: ASIN: B000ILHLXA) • 1985: Poems: 1959-1975. Translated by Richard Pevear. (Random House) • 1991: In the Shadow's Light. Translated by John Naughton. (University of Chicago Press: 9780226064482) • 2007: The Curved Planks. Translated by Hoyt Rogers. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). • 2011: Second Simplicity: New Poetry and Prose, 1991-2011. Selected, translated, and with an introduction by Hoyt Rogers. (Yale University Press). • 2012: Beginning and End of the Snow [followed by Where the Arrow Falls]. Translated by Emily Grosholz. (Bucknell University Press) • 2013: The Present Hour; with an Introduction by Beverley Bie Brahic. (Seagull Books) • 2014: The Digamma; with an introduction by Hoyt Rogers. Translated by Hoyt Rogers. (Seagull Books). • 2015: The Anchor's Long Chain; with an Introduction by Beverley Bie Brahic. (Seagull Books) • 2017: Together Still [followed by Perambulans in Noctem]; with an afterword by Hoyt Rogers. Translated by Hoyt Rogers with Mathilde Bonnefoy. (Seagull Books). • List of poems • Title — |Year — |First published — |Reprinted/collected • The almond tree — 1985 — Translated by Richard Pevear.

* • 1991: Mythologies [2 Volumes]. Compiled by Yves Bonnefoy. Edited by Wendy Doniger. (University of Chicago Press) * * • 1993: Alberto Giacometti: A Biography of His Work. (Flammarion) • 1995: The Lure and the Truth of Painting: Selected Essays on Art. (University of Chicago Press) • 2004: Shakespeare and the French Poet. (University of Chicago Press) ——————— • Bibliography notes

Yves Bonnefoy worked in poetry, essay, art criticism, translation and creative and professional writing. He was employed by Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, Brandeis University, Yale University and Collège de France. He belonged to American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. He worked at Tours.

Yves Bonnefoy is recorded at birth as Yves Jean Bonnefoy. Recorded as having studied at Faculty of Arts of Paris, Lycée Descartes and University of Poitiers.