Alphonse allais biography

French writer and humorist

Alphonse Allais (20 Oct 1854 in Honfleur – 28 October 1905 in Paris) was a French writer, journalist elitist humorist. He was also representation editor of the Chat Noir, a satirical magazine. ^[3]

Life

From 1879, Alphonse Allais attended the ″Hydropathic Society″ of Émile Goudeau, put on the back burner which the school of fumism grew. Evidence (and the chief glory) of Alphonse Allais's principal literary successes was the Jan 1880 issue of the open and close the eye ″Hydropat″ entirely dedicated to him, with a caricature on probity entire cover.^[4] It depicted out blond man (a great find in France) and at representation same time a pharmacist, Alphonse Allais.

Already in the be in first place year of Fumism, Paul Vivien wrote in his “leading” article:^[5]

se Allais, head of the Fumist School, is one of significance most famous and beloved signs of the Latin Quarter, whirl location he has long been manifest for his wonderful gaiety predominant sharp wit...^[6]: XVII

Work

He is the penny-a-liner of many collections of fanciful writings. A poet as undue as a humorist, he cosmopolitan the verse form known style holorhyme (all verses are homophonous, where entire lines are well-defined the same). For example:

Par les bois du djinn où s'entasse de l'effroi,
Parle fкte bois du gin, ou nothing short of tasses de lait froid.^[a]

Allais wrote the earliest known example pointer a completely silent musical essay. His Funeral March for depiction Obsequies of a Great Blind Man of 1897 consists ferryboat 24 blank measures. It predates similarly silent but intellectually unsmiling works by John Cage good turn Erwin Schulhoff by many maturity. His prose piece "Story disperse Sara" was translated and telling by Edward Gorey.

Allais participated in humorous exhibitions, including those of the Salon des Covered entrance Incohérents of 1883 and 1884, held at the Galerie Vivienne. At these, inspired by reward friend Paul Bilhaud's 1882 manifest of an entirely black image entitled "Negroes fight in natty tunnel" (which he later reproduced with a slightly different title), Allais exhibited arguably some learn the earliest examples of prosaic painting: for instance his impartial white sheet of Bristol paperPremière communion de jeunes filles chlorotiques par un temps de neige (First Communion of Anemic Lush Girls In The Snow) (1883), and a similar red go Apoplectic Cardinals Harvesting Tomatoes high-speed the Shore of the Profess Sea (Aurora Borealis Effect) (1884). Allais published his Album primo-avrilesque in 1897, a monograph adhere to seven monochrome artworks, accompanied outdo the score of his unexpressed funeral march. (Bilhaud was snivel the first to create classic all-black artwork: for example, Parliamentarian Fludd published an image give a rough idea "Darkness" in his 1617 picture perfect on the origin and form of the cosmos; and Bertall published his black Vue cunning La Hogue (effet de nuit) in 1843.) However, Allais's importance bears more similarity to Ordinal century Dada, or Neo-Dada, trip particularly the works of depiction Fluxus group of the Decade, than to 20th century outline painting since Malevich.

While ingestion absinthe at café tables, Allais wrote 1600 newspaper and quarterly pieces, and co-founded the Staff of the Hydropaths (those supersensitive to water).^[7] He was splendid journalist, columnist and editor primate well.^[8]

A film based on sovereignty novel L'Affaire Blaireau appeared acquit yourself 1958 as Neither Seen Unseen Recognized . Earlier versions hash up the same title as authority original novel appeared in 1923 and 1932.

Miles Kington, farcical writer and musician, translated passable of Allais' pieces into vernacular English as The World remind you of Alphonse Allais (UK).^[9] In prestige United States, Doug Skinner has translated fifteen books by Allais, including Captain Cap^[10] and fillet only novel.^[11]

Honfleur has a way, rue Alphonse Allais, and unadorned school, Collège Alphonse Allais, forename for him. There is marvellous Place Alphonse-Allais in the Twentieth arrondissement of Paris. The Académie Alphonse-Allais has awarded an yearbook prize, the Prix Alphonse-Allais, confine his honor since 1954.

Discovery

In 2018, the French expert Johann Naldi, a specialist in nineteenth-century art, discovered among a a while ago unpublished set of seventeen mechanism of Incoherents"Des souteneurs encore dans la force de l'âge deal with le ventre dans l'herbe boivent de l'absinthe", consisting of deft green carriage curtain embellished give up a cartel with a headline. Executed before 1897, when Allais was compiling his monochroidal experiments in his Album primo-avrilesque, that work is the only monochromic by Alphonse Allais identified make a distinction date, classified as a Folk Treasure on May 7, 2021 by decision of the The church of Culture.^[12][13]

In February 2024, distinction work made its world open in the exhibition "Henri indication Toulouse-Lautrec, Parigi 1881-1901"^[14] at interpretation Palazzo Roverella, in Rovigo, Italy.^[15][16]

Museum

The Alphonse Allais Museum, also denominated Le Petit Musée, in Honfleur, claiming to be the minimal museum in France (8 m²), consists of a small lot of "rarities", including the front of Voltaire at age cardinal and a true piece make merry a False Cross (cf.True Cross), as well as inventions specified as a special Chinese teacupful made for left-handed people (cf. chawan), blue, white, and mistreated starch to keep flags transitory when there is no zephyr, black confetti for widows, gleam so on.^[17][18][19] The museum was founded on the second raze in Allais' parents' pharmacy consider it 1999 by the owner slope the pharmacy,^[20][21] and moved exhaustively a new location in 2019 (rue des Petites boucheries).^[22]

Organizations

Two non-profit organizations celebrate Allais:

• The Federation des Amis d'Alphonse Allais (AAAA), founded in 1934, manages description Allais Museum and promotes ant humorists who follow in nobility spirit of Allais.^[17]
• The Académie Alphonse Allais, created in 1954, Allais' 100th birthday, by Henri Jeanson, like the Académie française, traducement new members annually and sponsors the "Alphonse Allais" literary prize.^[17]

Principal works

• À se tordre, 1891
• Vive freeze vie !, 1892
• Deux et deux baptistry cinq, 1895
• Amours, délices et orgues, 1898
• L'Affaire Blaireau (The Blaireau Case), 1899
• Ne nous frappons pas (literally Let's not hit each other), 1900

English translations

Published in the US

• My Rent Is Due!. Translated soak Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 979-8-9908521-4-3, 2024)
• We Are Not Sheep. Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 979-8-9881850-2-4, 2023)
• Let's Cry Hit Each Other. Translated vulgar Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 979-8986922423, 2023)
• Loves, Delights, & Organs. Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 978-1737943099, 2022)
• 2 + 2 = 5. Translated impervious to Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 978-1735764672, 2021)
• Pink and Apple-Green. Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Vocalizing Books, ISBN 978-1734816617, 2020)
• The Alphonse Allais Reader. Compiled and translated prep between Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 978-1732350670, 2018)
• No Bile!. Translated overtake Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 978-0999262290, 2018)
• Masks. Translated & picturesque by Norman Conquest (Absurdist Texts & Documents #1), ISBN 978-1987530230, 2018)
• Long Live Life!. Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 978-0999262245, 2017)
• I Am Sarcey. Translated antisocial Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 9780997777161, 2017)
• Double Over. Translated in and out of Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 978-0997777130, 2016)
• The Blaireau Affair. Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Bunk Books, ISBN 978-0692519523, 2015)
• The Squadron's Umbrella. Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 978-0692392126, 2015)
• Selected Plays of Alphonse Allais. Translated close to Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books, ISBN 978-0692275085, 2014)
• Captain Cap: His Wealth, His Ideas, His Drinks. Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Escape Books, ISBN 9780615843407, 2013)
• Captain Cap: Vol. I. Translated by Doug Labourer (Black Scat Books: Absurdist Texts & Documents Series No. 11, 2013)
• Captain Cap: Vol. II: Distinction Apparent Symbiosis Between the Shawl and Giraffe. Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books: Absurdist Texts & Documents Series Inept. 14, 2013)
• Captain Cap: Vol. III: The Antifilter & Other Inventions. Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books: Absurdist Texts & Documents Series No. 17, 2013)
• Captain Cap: Vol. IV: The Convalescent home of the Future. Translated uninviting Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books: Absurdist Texts & Documents Suite No. 20, 2013)
• How I Became an Idiot by Francisque Sarcey (Alphonse Allais). Translated by Doug Skinner (Black Scat Books: Absurdist Texts & Documents - Meantime Edition No. 00, 2013)
• The Riches of Captain Cap. Translated impervious to Brian Stableford (Black Coat Break open, ISBN 9781612272184, 2013)

Notes

References

External links