I have a piece in the next edition of Firmament.
It’s a translation of an interview with Paul Lespès, a school friend of Isidore Ducasse, a.k.a. le Comte de Lautréamont.
Ducasse was a mysterious figure. Dying in abject circumstances during the Siege of Paris, it wasn’t until years later that his delirious poem Les Chants de Maldoror was rediscovered and recognized for its mad genius.
Subsequently, rumours multiplied about the unknown poet. Some claimed he was an agitator, the Surrealists hailed him as unwitting progenitor (Philippe Soupault, amongst others, claimed that he only composed his verse at night, after drinking gallons of coffee, as he beat out chords on his piano — much to the chagrin of his neighbours), others supposed childhood deafness and long-held bitter resentments as having inspired his scabrous work.
In order to sort fact from fiction, journalist François Alicot set out to establish the truth about the enigmatic Ducasse. To that end, he interviewed one of Ducasse’s old schoolfriend, Paul Lespès, one of several to whom Ducasse had dedicated his only other significant work, Poésies.
The fruits of Alicot’s inquiries were published in the January 1928 edition of Mercure de France. Firmament, Vol. 3, No. 1 will include translated extracts from Alicot’s interview with Lespès, in which he recounts his memories of the schooldays of le Comte de Lautréamont.
The magazine will be released early next year. You can pre-order a copy here: