Pierre Albert-Birot
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Pierre Albert-Birot (22 April 1876 – 25 July 1967) was a French avant-garde poet, dramatist, and theater manager. He was a steadfast avant-garde during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, through the magazine ''Sic'' he created and published from 1916 to 1919. He was a defender of
Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...
and
Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
. The
Dadaists Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...
considered him one of their own, although he never took part in the movement. He declared himself the founder of the ″nunique" school (from the Greek adverb νῦν / nun, ''now''), a literary school of which he was the only master, with no disciples. After the war, he distanced himself from the
Surrealists Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
, to whom he had, with
Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...
, given their name, and he created a solipsistic body of work and tried his hand at everything, printing his own books, cultivating the childlike joy of artistic creation, as he himself wrote: ″I find my joy in poetic creation and I find my joy in the creations of my hands. ... All of this is just like a game, I love to play, I keep the kid alive.″ Despite being mocked by the Surrealists for his pretensions to excel in too many arts, and being criticized by
Philippe Soupault Philippe Soupault (2 August 1897 – 12 March 1990) was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He was active in Dadaism and later was instrumental in founding the Surrealist movement with André Breton. Soupault ini ...
as an extravagant man without real poetic talent, he earned the praises and friendships of
Francis Picabia Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism ...
and
Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...
who dubbed him (" Pyrogen"), because of his "fiery" temperament as an innovator and disruptor. Later,
Gaston Bachelard Gaston Bachelard (; ; 27 June 1884 – 16 October 1962) was a French philosopher. He made contributions in the fields of poetics and the philosophy of science. To the latter, he introduced the concepts of ''epistemological obstacle'' and '' epi ...
praised the depth of his philosophical views, thanking him for ″giving the body better consciousness than a philosopher″ and he influenced various poets such as
Jean Follain Jean Follain (29 August 1903 – 10 March 1971) was a French writer, poet and corporate lawyer. In the early days of his career he was a member of the "Sagesse" group.
,
Pascal Pia Pascal Pia (15 August 1903, Paris – 27 September 1979, Paris), born Pierre Durand, was a French writer, journalist, illustrator and scholar. He also used the pseudonyms Pascal Rose, Pascal Fely and others. In 1922 he published the erotic ...
, and even today,
Valérie Rouzeau Valérie Rouzeau (born 22 August 1967, in Cosne-sur-Loire), is a French poet and translator. She is the eldest of a family of seven children. She holds a Master of literary translation. She received the Prix Guillaume Apollinaire for Poetry in 2 ...
.


Chilhood and adolescence

Pierre Albert Birot (he has not yet incorporated his second name into his surname) was born on April 22, 1876 in
Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; oc, Engoleime) is a communes of France, commune, the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Charente Departments of France, department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern Franc ...
. His mother, Marguerite, ″embroidered, played the piano and sang. FOLLAIN Jean, ''Pierre Albert-Birot'', Paris, Pierre Seghers, Coll. '' Poètes d'aujourd'hui'', 1967.″ His father, Maurice Birot, ″was constantly starting up businesses, but not very solid ones.″ The family spent their summers not far from Angoulême, at the Château de Chalonnes. There, the young Albert-Birot, still in high school, set up a glove puppet theatre, wrote plays, and invited the village to performances. After his father made some bad business deals, the family left the Château de Chalonnes and moved to
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
. Pierre received private lessons in Greek, and gave his teacher ″an exceptional wooden cutout cigar case made by him using a pedal machine as big as a sewing machine.″ In the same year, his father left the household to live with a friend of his wife. Finding themselves without resources, Marguerite set up a boarding house. The house then welcomed young female dancers from the nearby theatre who came to live in the room next to Pierre's. Follain takes pleasure in telling the story of how he spied on them, naked, through a crack in the wall. However, the boarding house was not sufficient to cover the family's needs, so they moved to Paris at the end of 1892. There, Marguerite improvised as a seamstress.


Early years in Paris

In Paris, Albert Birot, barely sixteen years old, met the sculptor Georges Achard, who introduced him to the École des Beaux-Arts and introduced him to Falguière. Since he wanted to be a painter, Albert-Birot met
Gustave Moreau Gustave Moreau (; 6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence".Cassou, Jean. 1979. ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism.' ...
and Gérôme at this time. It is finally sculpture that captures his interest: he leaves the École des Beaux-Arts, works on sculpture in Georges Achard's studio, meets Alfred Boucher. In the latter's studio, an Italian craftsman teaches him how to carve marble. Having received financial support from the city of Angoulême trough a scholarship, he sets up his studio in a cabin on the boulevard du Montparnasse. At the same time, he takes courses at the Sorbonne and the
Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...
, including the philosophy course of
Alfred Espinas Alfred Victor Espinas (23 May 1844 – 24 February 1922) was a French thinker noted for having been an influence on Nietzsche. He was a student of Comte and Spencer. Although initially an adherent of positivism, he later became a committed realist ...
. He sets up house in 1896 with the sister of the painter , Marguerite, with whom he has four children. He exhibits at the Salon des Artistes Français for the first time in 1900. Seven years later, his sculpture ''The Widow'' is purchased by the state for the cemetery of
Issy-les-Moulineaux Issy-les-Moulineaux () is a commune in the southwestern suburban area of Paris, France, lying on the left bank of the river Seine. Its citizens are called ''Isséens'' in French. It is one of Paris' entrances and is located from Notre-Dame Cath ...
, where it remains today. For food, he sculpts Parisian façades (some of which can be seen around the Champ-de-Mars and in Neuilly-sur-Seine). From 1900, he also worked as a restorer for antique dealer Madame Lelong, a job he kept all his life and which provided the material for his novel ''Rémy Floche, employé''. During the year 1912, he frequented
Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...
circles in Paris and wrote poems in Esperanto. It is perhaps thereLENTENGRE Marie-Louise, ''Pierre Albert-Birot, l'invention de soi'', Paris, JM Place, 1993. that he met the musician Germaine de Surville. The same year, he abandoned his children. His daughters entered the Orphanage of the Arts in Courbevoie, and his sons entered the Fraternity of Artists.LATOUR Geneviève, ''Pierre Albert – Birot et le théâtre de Guillaume Apollinaire''

He married Germaine in 1913.


''SIC''

From January 1916 to December 1919, Albert-Birot edited the avant-garde art magazine ''SIC'', which featured writings by Futurism (art), Futurists,
Surrealists Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
, and
Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
ists. ''SIC'' became a focus for many avant-garde initiatives, even those which Albert-Birot himself disliked, he believing in independence and objectivity.


New Birth

Pierre Albert Birot escaped general mobilization due to respiratory insufficiency during World War I, and, according to his own words, ''was really born'' during the creation of the magazine ''SIC'' in 1916, when he definitively adopted his artist name, adding his second name to his surname. The title of the review, represented by a SIC carved into wood framed by two symmetrical F's, has two meanings; it is firstly the Latin word ''yes'', standing for "a desire to constructively oppose the war that negates human values" and more generally, a desire "to assert oneself through a complete acceptance of the world," and it is also the acronym for its subheading "Sons Idées Couleurs, Formes," which for now is only an expression of the multiple activities of the Albert-Birot couple – Sounds for Germaine's music, Ideas for poetry, Colors for painting, and Forms for Pierre's sculpture – but will soon become the moto for a "synthesis of modernist arts." Issue number 1, sold for twenty centimes, appears in January. For now, it has been entirely written and illustrated by Pierre Albert-Birot. The publication stands out for its modernism, especially coming from a painter and sculptor trained by traditionalist Achard, a self-taught "Adamite poet" who has not yet encountered the avant-garde. "Our desire: to act. To take initiatives, not to wait for them to come from across the Rhine," is the first of the "First Words" displayed by SIC; further on we read this affirmation of originality as a condition of Art, "Art begins where imitation ends " which is not without evoking, although in a much less radical form, Dada's rejection of all imitation and literary tradition and life. With a one-month advance, Albert-Birot is not far from the vitalist affirmation of the Dadaists of no longer imitating life but creating lifeAs
Hans Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter, and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born in Straßburg (now Stras ...
wrote : ″la vie est le but de l'art. l'art peut mécomprendre ses moyens et ne faire que mirer la vie au lieu de la créer." (''Life is the goal of art. Art may misunderstand its powers and only reflect life instead of creating it'')

/ref>.. But above all, we must see in the publication of this first issue the call, the outstretched hand of an isolated artist to avant-garde circles of which he is both completely unknown and ignorant. When he mockingly calls
Paul Claudel Paul Claudel (; 6 August 1868 – 23 February 1955) was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his verse dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism. Early lif ...
a ″beautiful poet of the day before yesterday″ and continues with ″I would really like to meet a poet of today″ This last affirmation may be taken literally.


Meeting with avant-garde circles

The first to respond to this call was not a poet but the painter
Gino Severini Gino Severini (7 April 1883 – 26 February 1966) was an Italian Painting, painter and a leading member of the Futurism (art), Futurist movement. For much of his life he divided his time between Paris and Rome. He was associated with neo-classici ...
, whose impetus made SIC a true avant-garde magazine, as Albert-Birot humorously explains: ″Severini already had quite a few years of combat and research into ultra-modern art behind him, since he had been with
Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist, and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye d ...
, the creator of
Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...
, for a long time; naturally, for him, the first issue of my magazine was quite timid, but after talking to me he had the feeling that I was ready to become a true warrior for the good cause.″″ Naissance et vie de SIC ″, ''les Lettres nouvelles'', n° 7, septembre 1953. The second issue, published in February, is devoted to the discovery of
Futurism Futurism ( it, Futurismo, link=no) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such ...
. It reports on Severini's First Exhibition of Plastic Art of the War and other previous works, held at the Boutet de Monvel gallery from January 15 to February 1, 1916. Albert-Birot writes: "The picture, until now a fraction of space, becomes with futurism a fraction of time." Severini offers SIC a reproduction of his ''Train Arriving in Paris''. In addition, Severini convinces
Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...
to meet Albert-Birot. The meeting takes place in July 1916, at the Italian hospital, and immediately the two men became friends. Apollinaire introduces Albert-Birot to his many friends and brings his mentorship to the magazine. Apollinaire has his Tuesdays at the
Café de Flore The Café de Flore () is one of the oldest coffeehouses in Paris, celebrated for its famous clientele, which in the past included high-profile writers and philosophers. It is located at the corner of Boulevard Saint-Germain and Rue Saint-Benoî ...
and SIC has its Saturdays, on rue de la Tombe-Issoire, where Apollinaire comes as soon as he is released from the hospital and brings his friends: André Salmon, Pierre Reverdy, Serge Férat, and Roch Grey.


Collaboration with Apollinaire

From their first meeting, organized by Severini in July 1916 while Apollinaire was convalescing at the Italian hospital in Paris, Albert-Birot asked him to write a play that he would direct, with the idea of non-realistic theater as the guiding principle. Apollinaire proposed to subtitle it ″supernaturalist drama″; but Albert-Birot wanted to avoid any association with the naturalist school or the evocation of the supernatural, so they agreed on the word ″surrealist.″ The play, ''Les Mamelles de Tirésias'', was created at the Maubel conservatory on June 24, 1917. The music was by Germaine Albert-Birot, the sets by the cubist painter Serge Férat, and the costumes by Irène Lagut. In the idea of abandoning referential realism, masks were used. Patrons are sold a program adorned with a drawing by
Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and a woodcut by
Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
. The creation of the work takes place under uncertain conditions due to the context of the war. The budget is reduced and the scenery is made of paper. Thérèse's flying breasts were supposed to be represented by helium-filled balloons, but since the gas is reserved for the army, they settle for pressed fabric balls. The director also narrowly avoids a last-minute actor dropout, and without any musicians, Germaine's music cannot be played. Finally, a single pianist, who also handles sound effects, performs the music. The play, which is a sell-out at its performance, has a taste of a Dada evening: already, due to the passionate reactions, the show is as much on stage as it is in the audience. "Journalists ..shout scandal. ..The play ends in an indescribable uproar." Another incident occurs when
Jacques Vaché Jacques Vaché Jacques Vaché (7 September 1895 – 6 January 1919) was a friend of André Breton, the founder of surrealism. Vaché was one of the chief inspirations behind the Surrealist movement. As Breton said: :"''En littérature, je me suis ...
, accompanied by Théodore Fraenkel, threatens the audience with a gun. Later, Albert-Birot will doubt the veracity of this anecdote. "The play attracts the wrath of the press, which unleashes itself against Apollinaire as well as against Albert-Birot. It also causes several cubists, including
Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...
, to distance themselves from Apollinaire. On the other hand, young
Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He wa ...
, urged on by Albert-Birot, writes a glowing review in ''SIC''. The same year, Albert-Birot publishes his ''31 Pocket Poems'' prefaced by Apollinaire. Unfortunately, Apollinaire dies the following year and the experience of ''Les Mamelles de Tirésias'' cannot be repeated. In January of the following year, Albert-Birot dedicates a triple issue of ''SIC'' to the memory of Apollinaire, and brings together the funeral tributes of Roger Allard, Louis Aragon, André Billy, Blaise Cendrars, Jean Cocteau, Paul Dermée, Max Jacob, Irène Lagut, Pierre Reverdy, Jules Romains, André Salmon, Tristan Tzara, etc.


″The time of solitude″

..with the 30s and after the theater experiments, begins what Albert-Birot calls his time of solitude.″ – Jean Follain Germaine Albert-Birot died in 1931, and the poet of light was forced to don the clothes of mourning. He wrote and printed without an author's name thirty copies of a collection of funeral poems that he dedicated to himself: "My Dead, a sentimental poem." Four "G"s, as a coat of arms, adorned each page. According to the testimony of his friend Jean Follain (whom he met in 1933 and who remained one of his rare friends along with the painter Serge Férat, the novelist Roch Grey, and Roger Roussot), the widowed poet retired to a narrow dwelling on rue du Départ, refused literary fraternities, and printed his books, using his lever machine placed in his room, giving them the only advertisement of depositing them at the National Library. After My Dead in 1931 and six years of silence, we can cite The Cycle of Poems of the Year in 1937, the elegiac Âmenpeine in 1938, and The Black Panther, the same year. He spent much of his time listening to the radio with headphones on an old galena machine. In the evening, he dined alone, poorly. However, at the same time, from 1933, Jean Follain started to gather Albert-Birot's old friends every fortnight for so-called Grabinoulor dinners, from the name of the epic whose writing would occupy all his life, and its eponymous character, the literary double of Albert-Birot. Grabinoulor is a vast project started in 1918, the year in which an excerpt was also published in the thirtieth issue of Sic. The Grabinoulor dinners, where one read pages of the epic, took place in a restaurant on rue des Canettes, and the books that Albert-Birot printed at this time bear the mention ″Editions des Canettes″. In 1933, thanks to the recommendation of
Jean Paulhan Jean Paulhan (2 December 1884 – 9 October 1968) was a French writer, literary critic and publisher, director of the literary magazine ''Nouvelle Revue Française'' (NRF) from 1925 to 1940 and from 1946 to 1968. He was a member (Seat 6, 1963–68 ...
, Robert Denoël agreed to publish a first version of Grabinoulor, which is in two books (it will count six, once completed).


Last rebirth and late life

A new life begins for Pierre Albert-Birot in 1955, when he meets Arlette Lafont, a Sorbonne student who wanted to collect his testimony on Roch Grey. She became his wife in 1962, and through her efforts, she helped to bring her husband's work out of obscurity. In 1956, he dedicated to her his collection of poems ''The Blue Train'', written in 1953, with these words: ″For Arlette, who gives me a kind of strange tranquility, a kind of certainty that I will not entirely get on the Blue Train. I will leave here a part of the best of myself″ The ″blue train″ is in Albert-Birot's personal mythology an allegory he had already used for death. The collection is mainly composed of verse poems, meditations on time, old age, and death, but always carried by the quirky humor of its author. Thus, Pascal Pia was able to say that ″Albert-Birot did not put a final point on anything. He was not inclined towards rupture. Struggles, however severe they were, did not bring him down, nor did they change his tone. The songs of his twilight have the same familiar turn as the poems of his beginnings.″ In 1965, thanks to Arlette's efforts, Gallimard published an augmented but incomplete Grabinoulor. A banner did not hesitate to present it as "a classic of Surrealism," to the surprise, and even anger, of Albert-Birot, who had never been part of the group, signed any manifesto, or participated in any of the demonstrations. In 1966, he declared that he was not "attracted to the arcana and the fantastic of Surrealism, to its Freudian visions." The play, to which the author put a final point in 1963—the only point in all of his work—is only published in its complete form of the Six Books of Grabinoulor in 1991 by Jean-Michel Place. Pierre Albert-Birot died on July 27, 1967. On his death notice, Arlette included a verse from The Black Panther:Arlette Albert-Birot, « la Panthère noire ou le retour à l'ordre » in Madeleine Renouard (dir.), ''Pierre Albert-Birot, laboratoire de modernité'', Paris, JM Place, 1997. "Those who love you see you beautiful, vertical, all war and fire and colors, biting with full teeth, biting into the solar system."


Poetry

Albert-Birot wrote several books of poetry, including: * ("Thirty-one Pocket Poems"), 1917 * ("Everyday Poems"), 1919 * , 1920 * ("Poems to the Other Me"), 1927 * , 1938 * * ("The Black Panther"), 1938 * ("Natural Amusements"), 1945 * ("110 drops of poetry", 1952 His poetry is inseparable from his early theatrical work: lyric, funny and eminently modern.


Prose

His novel '' Grabinoulor'' appeared in 1919.
Bernard Jourdan Bernard Jourdan (1 February 1918 – 18 August 2003) was a 20th-century French writer. In 1961, his novel ' published in 1960 by Fayard earned him the Prix des Deux Magots The Prix des Deux Magots is a major French literary prize. It is presented ...
definitively established that the name of the hero of this
stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver (physician), Daniel Ol ...
, from which all punctuation is banned, is a near-anagram of "We Albert-Birot"; Grabinoulour, a very modern man, has a host of adventures, some everyday, others fantastic, with nods to the heroes of Rabelais' and
Lewis Caroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
's works, but also, and above all, to the supermen of modern mythology, from
Fantômas Fantômas () is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain (1885–1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914). One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appeared ...
to
Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
, from
Arsène Lupin Arsène Lupin (French pronunciation: ʁsɛn lypɛ̃ is a fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc. The character was first introduced in a series of short stories serialized in the magazi ...
to science fiction heroes traveling through the space and time. Pierre Albert-Birot was a very singular man, a fringe poet who fascinated later generations with fanciful novels such as the 1934 ("employee"). He also wrote literary translations of
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
, Eschylus and
Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...
, translations of medieval poets into Modern French, and studies of prosody.


Theater

In 1917, Albert-Birot directed the first performance of by
Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...
, a friend who had also been a contributor to ''SIC''. He went on to write numerous plays of his own, including ("Bluebeard"); ("Flexible Women"); and ("The Dismembered Man"). In 1929 he founded his own theater, Le Plateau. Being unable to afford to produce others' works, he produced his own series of short performance pieces entitled ("Study pieces").


References


Further reading

*


External links

* Covers and excerpts fro
all fifty-four issues of ''SIC''
scanned and archived by the University of Iowa library Jean Rousselot. Dictionnaire de la poesie francaise contemporaine 1968, Auge, Guillon, Hollier -Larousse, Mooreau et Cie.-Librairie Larousse, Paris {{DEFAULTSORT:Albert-Birot, Pierre People from Angoulême 1876 births 1967 deaths 20th-century French male writers 20th-century French dramatists and playwrights 20th-century French poets French male poets