Roger Gilbert-Lecomte (18 May 1907 in
Reims
Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
– 31 December 1943 in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
) was a
French 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 ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
and co-founder (with
René Daumal,
Roger Vailland and
Josef Šíma) of the artistic group and magazine ''Le Grand Jeu''. The group, associated with
surrealists, was "excommunicated" from the movement by
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
. Gilbert-Lecomte used drugs, in particular
morphine
Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
, for both artistic and sociological reasons. As was predicted in his poetry, his death was the result of an infection caused by the use of dirty hypodermic needles.
"Coma Crossing: Collected Poems", Schism Books, 2019, is the most comprehensive bilingual anthology of his poetry and "Theory of the Great Game" (Atlas Books, 2015) gives a hefty selection of his prose, along with that of René Daumal and other members of "Le Grand Jeu."
Bibliography
* ''Le grand jeu'' (nos 1, 2, et 3)
* ''Testament'' (1955)
* ''Sacre et massacre de l'amour'' (1960)
* ''Tétanos mystique'' (1972)
* ''Lettres à Benjamin Fondane'' (1985)
* ''Monsieur Morphée empoisonneur public'' (1966)
* ''Correspondance'' (1971)
* ''Arthur Rimbaud'' (1971)
* ''L'horrible révélation… la seule'' (1973)
* ''Œuvres complètes'', 2 volumes (1974–1977)
* ''Caves en plein ciel'' (1977)
* ''Neuf haï kaï'' (1977)
* ''Poèmes et chroniques retrouvés'' (1982)
* ''Mes chers petits éternels'' (1992)
* ''La vie, l'amour, la mort, le vide et le vent''
* ''Joseph Sima'' (2000)
* ''Le miroir noir''
* ''Black Mirror: The Selected Poems of Roger Gilbert-Lecomte'' (Station Hill Press, 1991)
* ''The Book is a Ghost: Thoughts and Paroxysms for going Beyond'' (Solar▲Luxuriance, 2015)
* 'Coma Crossing: Collected Poems' (Schism Books, 2019)
External links
*
1907 births
1943 deaths
Writers from Reims
French surrealist writers
20th-century French poets
20th-century French male writers
Drug-related deaths in France
{{France-poet-stub