Biographie de Boris Vian (document en anglais)

Boris Vian

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Boris Vian

Born 10 March 1920

Ville-d'Avray, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Died 23 June 1959 (aged 39)

Paris, France

Pen name Vernon Sullivan, Bison Ravi, Baron Visi, Brisavion

Occupation Novelist, playwright, journalist, engineer

Nationality French

Notable work(s) L'Écume des jours

Boris Vian (French: [bɔʁis vjɑ̃]; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their release. Vian's other fiction, published under his real name, featured a highly individual writing style with numerous made-up words, subtle wordplay and surrealistic plots. L'Écume des jours (Froth on the Daydream) is the best known of these works, and one of the few translated into English.

Vian was also an important influence on the French jazz scene. He served as liaison for Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis in Paris, wrote for several French jazz-reviews (Le Jazz Hot, Paris Jazz) and published numerous articles dealing with jazz both in the United States and in France. His own music and songs enjoyed popularity during his lifetime, particularly the anti-war song "Le Déserteur" (The Deserter).

Contents [hide]

1 Biography

1.1 Early life

1.2 Formal education and teenage years

1.3 Career

1.4 Later years

1.5 Death

1.6 Legacy

2 Selected bibliography

2.1 Prose

2.1.1 Novels

2.1.2 Vernon Sullivan novels

2.1.3 Short story collections

2.2 Dramatic works

2.3 Poetry

2.4 Translations

2.5 Other works

3 See also

4 Notes

5 References

6 External links

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

Boris Vian was born in 1920 into an upper middle-class family in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Ville d'Avray (Hauts-de-Seine). His parents were Paul Vian, a young rentier, and Yvonne Ramenez, amateur pianist and harpist. From his father Vian inherited the distrust of the Church and the Army, as well as a love of the bohemian life. Vian was the second of four children: the others were Lélio (1918), Alain (1921–1995) and Ninon (1924). The family occupied the Les Fauvettes villa. The name "Boris" does not indicate Russian ancestry; it was chosen by Yvonne, who was an avid classical music lover, after seeing a performance of Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov.[1]

Vian suffered from ill health throughout his childhood and had to be educated at home until the age of five. From 1926 to 1932 he studied first at a small lycée, then at Lycée de Sèvres. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 the family's financial situation worsened considerably and they moved to a small lodge near Les Fauvettes (from 1929 to 1932 the Vians rented the villa to Yehudi Menuhin's family). Shortly after Vian's 12th birthday he developed rheumatic fever and after a while he also contracted typhoid. This combination led to severe health problems and left Vian with a heart condition that would ultimately lead to an early death. Vian gave an eyeblink to this heart condition in "l'Ecume des Jours", his most popular novel, featuring Chloë, the main female character as dying from a waterlily growing in her lung.

Formal education and teenage years[edit]

From 1932 to 1937, Vian studied at Lycée Hoche in Versailles. In 1936, Vian and his two brothers started organizing what they called "surprise-parties" (surprises-parties). They partook of mescaline in the form of a Mexican cacti called peyote. These gatherings became the basis of his early novels: Trouble dans les andains (Turmoil in the Swaths) (1943) and particularly Vercoquin et le plancton(Vercoquin and the Plankton) (1943–44). It was also in 1936 that Vian got interested in jazz; the next year he started playing the trumpet and joined the Hot Club de France.

In 1937, Vian graduated from Lycée Hoche, passing baccalauréats in mathematics, philosophy, Latin, Greek and German. He subsequently enrolled at Lycée Condorcet, Paris, where he studied special mathematics until 1939. Vian became fully immersed in the French jazz scene: for example, in 1939 he helped organize Duke Ellington's second concert in France. When the WWII started, Vian was not accepted into the army due to poor health. He entered École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris and subsequently moved to Angoulême when the school moved there because of the war.

In 1940, Vian met Michelle Léglise, who became his wife in 1941. She taught Vian English and introduced him to translations of American literature. Also in 1940 Vian met Jacques Loustalot, who became a recurring character in several early novels and short stories as "the colonel". Loustalot died accidentally in 1949 falling from a building he was trying to climb on in order to enter into a flat by the window, after a bet. In 1942 Vian and his brothers joined a jazz orchestra under the direction of Claude Abbadie, who became a minor character in Vian's Vercoquin et le plancton. The same year Vian graduated from École Centrale with a diploma in metallurgy and also in 1942 Boris and Michelle's son Patrick was born.

Career[edit]

After Vian's graduation, he and Michelle moved to Paris' 10th arrondissement and, on 24 August 1942 he became an engineer at the French Association for Standardisation (AFNOR).

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