Alain Gheerbrant (27 December 1920 – 21 February 2013) was a French writer, editor, poet and explorer, noted for his expedition in the

basins Basin may refer to: Geography and geology * Depression (geology) ** Back-arc basin, a submarine feature associated with island arcs and subduction zones ** Debris basin, designed to prevent damage from debris flow ** Drainage basin (hydrology), ...

of Amazonian rivers.

Career

Alain Gheerbrant was the first

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

publisher, founder of the publishing house K Éditeur, which published works by

Antonin Artaud Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...

, Benjamin Péret,

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

, and

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He ...

. For the second edition of '' Story of the Eye'' by Bataille, Gheerbrant introduced Bataille to the German artist Hans Bellmer in May 1946: "It was tempting," says Gheerbrant, "to create a dialogue between a

papist The words Popery (adjective Popish) and Papism (adjective Papist, also used to refer to an individual) are mainly historical pejorative words in the English language for Roman Catholicism, once frequently used by Protestants and Eastern Orthodox ...

and a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

on their common obsession. One's Nordic and surgical precision was made to give shape to the nocturnal and romantic imaginations of the other. The project took their common approval from the outset." The book was entirely rewritten by Bataille himself. From 1948 to 1950, Alain Gheerbrant led the

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

expedition. He travelled through the basins of both rivers for two years and wrote of his travels in (The Orinoco-Amazon Expedition) (1952). He is considered the first Westerner to make peaceful contact with the Yanomami Indians and also the first to cross the Parima Mountains as he did between 1948 and 1950. In 1952, he directed a documentary film called .(Men We Call Savages) He produced numerous articles from all over the world and published (Dictionary of Symbols)in 1982, a collaborative work with

Jean Chevalier Jean Chevalier (1906–1993) was a French writer, philosopher, and theologian, best known for his co-authorship of the ''Dictionnaire des symboles'' (''Dictionary of Symbols''), first printed in 1969 by publisher Éditions Robert Laffont. ''Dic ...

, an encyclopaedia of cultural anthropology about the symbolism of myths and folklore, which was republished nineteen times between 1982 and 1997. He authored an illustrated pocket book for the "

Découvertes Gallimard (, ; in United Kingdom: ''New Horizons'', in United States: ''Abrams Discoveries'') is an Collection (publishing), editorial collection of Book illustration, illustrated monographic books published by the Éditions Gallimard in Pocket edition, ...

" collection, titled (The Amazon, A Wounded Giant) (1988), which has been translated into eleven languages including English. In 1995, he released his memoir entitled (The Transverse).

Selected bibliography

* ''L'expédition Orénoque-Amazone (1948–1950)'', « Hors série Connaissance ». Éditions Gallimard, 1952 * ''Congo noir et blanc'', « Hors série Connaissance ». Éditions Gallimard, 1956 * ''The Incas'', Orion Press, 1961 * ''Journey to the Far Amazon: An Expedition Into Unknown Territory'', Simon & Schuster, 1964 * ''The Rebel Church in Latin America'', Penguin Books, 1974 ( Pelican Latin American Library) * Collab. with

, ''Dictionnaire des symboles'', Éditions Robert Laffont, 1982 ** ''Dictionary of Symbols'', Penguin Books, 1996 * ''L'Amazone, un géant blessé'', collection «

» (nº 40), série Histoire. Éditions Gallimard, 1988 (new edition in 2005) ** US edition – ''The Amazon: Past, Present, and Future'', "

Abrams Discoveries Abrams may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Abrams (surname), a list of notable people with the surname Places United States * Abrams, Wisconsin, a town * Abrams (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated community * Abrams Mountain, Colorado * Abr ...

" series. Harry N. Abrams, 1992 ** UK edition – ''The Amazon: Past, Present and Future'', '

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...

' series. Thames & Hudson, 1992 * ''La Transversale'', Actes Sud, 1998

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gheerbrant, Alain 1920 births 2013 deaths 20th-century French explorers Explorers of South America French explorers of Africa French ethnologists French travel writers 20th-century French poets