Denise Levertov, Michel Beaulieu, Lars Gustafsson, Pierre Rissient, Guillaume Apollinaire
Je dis douceur d eug ne guillevic
Eugène Guillevic (Carnac, Morbihan, France, August 5, 1907 Carnac – March 19, 1997 Paris) ([øʒɛn ɡijəvik]) was one of the better known French poets of the second half of the 20th century. Professionally, he went under just the single name "Guillevic".
He was born in the rocky landscape and marine environment of Brittany. His father, a sailor, was a policeman and took him to Jeumont (Nord) in 1909, Saint-Jean-Brévelay (Morbihan) in 1912, and Ferrette (Haut-Rhin) in 1919.
After a BA in mathematics, he was placed by the exams of 1926, in the Administration of Registration (Alsace, Ardennes). Appointed in 1935 to Paris as senior editor at the Directorate General at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, he was assigned in 1942 to control the economy. He was from 1945 to 1947 in the Cabinets of Ministers Francis Billoux (National Economy) and Charles Tillon (Reconstruction). In 1947 after the ouster of Communist ministers, he returned to the Inspector General of Economics, where his work included studies of the economy and planning, until his retirement in 1967.
He was a pre-war friend of Jean Follain, who introduced him to the "Sagesse" group. Then he belonged to the "School of Rochefort".
He was a practicing Catholic for about thirty years. He became a communist sympathizer during the Spanish Civil War, and in 1942 joined the Communist Party when he joined with Paul Éluard, and participated in the publications of the underground press (Pierre Seghers, Jean Lescure).
His poetry is concise, straightforward as rock, rough and generous, but still suggestive. His poetry is also characterized by its rejection of metaphors, in that he prefers comparisons which he considered less misleading.
Awards
1976 Grand Award for Poetry of the Académie française
1984 Grand National Prize for Poetry
1988 Prix Goncourt for poetry
English translation works
Carnac, Bloodaxe, John Montague (Translator), December 2000, ISBN 978-1-85224-393-7
The Sea & Other Poems, Black Widow Press/Commonwealth Books, Inc. Patricia Terry (Translator), July 15, 2007, ISBN 978-0-9768449-8-3
French works
L'Expérience Guillevic (1923–1938, documents de travail publiés en 1994)
Requiem (1938, plaquette de 6 poèmes non repris par l'auteur)[1]
Terraqué, Gallimard, Paris, 1942.
Elégies, avec une lithographie de Jean Dubuffet, Le Calligraphe, Paris 1946
Fractures, Éditions de Minuit, collection L'Honneur des poètes, Paris 1947
Exécutoire, Gallimard, Paris, 1947.
Gagner, Gallimard, Paris, 1949.
Terre à bonheur, Seghers, Paris, 1952; édition augmentée d' Envie de vivre, Seghers, Paris, 1985.
31 sonnets, préface Aragon, Gallimard, Paris, 1954 [recueil que Guillevic n'a pas souhaité voir réédité].
Proses ou Boire dans le secret des grottes, Fischbacher, Paris, 2001 [édition posthume élaborée par Lucie Albertini-Guillevic et Jérôme Pellissier]. (ISBN 9782717900262)
