July 2006
Edmond Jabes
Edmond Jabès
http://writing.upenn.edu/epc/authors/jabes/biblio-jabes.html
Biographical Note and Bibliography
Edmond Jabès (Cairo, 1912 – Paris, January 2, 1991)
was a Jewish writer and poet, and one of the best known
literary figures to write in French after World War II.
The son of a Jewish Italian family, he was raised in Egypt, where he received a classical French colonial education. He began publishing in French at an early age, and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1952 for his literary accomplishments.
When Egypt expelled its Jewish population in
1956 (Suez Crisis),Jabès fled to Paris, which he had first visited in the 1930s.
There he rekindled friendships with the surrealists although he was never formally a member of that group. He became a French citizen in 1967, the same year that he received the honor of being one of four French writers (alongside Sartre, Camus, and Levi-Strauss) to present his works at the World Exposition in Montreal. Further accolades followed -- the Prix des Critiques in 1972 and a commission as an officer in the Legion of Honor in 1986. In 1987, he received France's National Guard Prize for Poetry (Grand Prix national de la poésie).
Jabès's cremation ceremony took place a few days after his death – at age 78 – at the cemetery of Père Lachaise.
Jabès is best remembered for his books of poetry, often published in multi-volume cycles, at least fourteen volumes translated by Rosmarie Waldrop – Jabès's primary English translator. They often featured references to Jewish mysticism and kabbalah
Edmond Jabès (1912-1991) has created a new kind of literary work, as dazzling as it is difficult to define. A mosaic of fragments, aphorisms, dialogue, songs and commentaries that circle around the central question: how to say what cannot be said.
Jabès was born in Cairo in 1912.
He settled in France after being expelled from his native Egypt with other Jews during the 1956 Suez Crisis.
In 1987, he received France's Grand Prix national de la poésie.
He died in 1991.
Books:
Je bâtis ma demeure: Poèmes 1943-1957, Paris: Gallimard, 1959 (1975)
Le Livre des questions, Paris: Gallimard
I. Le Livre des Questions, 1963
II. Le Livre de Yukel, 1964
III. Retour au Livre, 1965
IV. Yael, 1967
V. Elya, 1969
VI. Aely, 1972
VII. El, ou le dernier livre, 1973
Ca suit son cours, Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1975
Le Livre des Ressemblances, Paris: Gallimard, 1976-80
I. Le Livre des Ressemblances, 1976
II. Le Soupçon le Désert, 1978
III. L'Ineffacable l'Inapperçu, 1980
[Le Livre des Limites]
I. Le petit livre de la subversion hors de soupçon, Gallimard, 1982
II. Le Livre du dialogue, Gallimard, 1984
III. Le Parcours, Gallimard, 1985
IV. Le Livre du partage, 1987
Récit, Fata Morgana, 1983
Dans la double dépendance du dit, Fata Morgana, 1984
La Mémoire et la main, Fata Morgana, 1986
Aigle et chouette, Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1986
Le Livre des Marges, Paris: Hachette: Livre de poche, 1987 [75,84]
Un étranger avec sous le bras un livre de petit format, 1989
La Mémoire des mots, Paris: Fourbis, 1990
Le Seuil le Sable [Complete Poems 1943-88], Paris: Gallimard, 1990
Le Livre de l’hospitalité, Paris: Gallimard, 1991
Désir d’un commencement Angoisse d’une seule fin, Montpellier, Fata Morgana, 1991
L’Enfer de Dante, Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1991
Un regard, Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1992
Cela a eu lieu, Paris: Fourbis, 1993
Bâtir au quotidien, esquisse: Le Livre des Marges III, Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1997
(with a preface by Viviane Jabès-Crasson)
Du désert au livre: Entretiens avec Marcel Cohen, Paris: Pierre Belfrond, 1980
In English:
Trans. Rosmarie Waldrop:
The Book of Questions, Wesleyan University Press, 1976-1984
I. The Book of Questions, 1976
II/III. The Book of Yukel/Return to the Book, 1977
IV/V/VI. Yaël, Elya, Aely, 1983
VII. El, or the Last Book, 1984
The Book of Dialogue, Wesleyan University Press, 1987
The Book of Shares, Chicago UP, 1989
The Book of Resemblances, Wesleyan University Press, 1990
I. The Book of Resemblances, 1990
II. Intimations The Desert, 1991
III. The Ineffaceable The Unperceived, 1992
From the Book to the Book [A Jabès Reader], Wesleyan UP, 1991
A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Book, Wesleyan UP, 1993
The Book of Margins, Chicago UP, 1993
The Little Book of Unsuspected Subversion, Stanford University Press, 1996
Desire for a Beginning Dread of One Single End, Granary Books, 2000
By other translators:
A Share of Ink, [Selected Short Poems] trans. Anthony Rudolf, Menard Press, 1979
If There Were Anywhere But Desert: Selected Poems, trans. Keith Waldrop, Station Hill Press, 1988
From the Desert to the Book: Dialogues with Marcel Cohen, trans. Pierre Joris,
Station Hill, 1990
On Jabès:
Jacques Derrida, "Edmond Jabès et la question du livre, L'écriture et la différence, Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1967
Maurice Blanchot, "Traces," L'Amitié, Paris: Gallimard, 1971
Joseph Guglielmi, La Ressemblance impossible: Edmond Jabès, Paris: Editeurs F Français Réunis, 1978
Adolfo Fernandez-Zoïla, Le Livre, recherche autre d’Edmond Jabès, Paris: Jean- Michel Place, 1978
Gabriel Bounoure, Edmond Jabès, la demeure et le livre, Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1984
Myriam Laifer, Edmond Jabès, un judaïsme après Dieu, New York: Peter Lang, 1986
David Mendelson, ed., Jabès: Le livre lu, Paris: Point hors Ligne, 1987
Mary Ann Caws, Edmond Jabès, Amsterdam: Ed. Rodopi, 1988
Richard Stamelman & Mary Ann Caws, eds., Ecrire le livre: autor d’Edmond Jabès,
Colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 1989
Didier Cahen, Edmond Jabès, Paris: Pierre Belfond, 1991
Daniel Lançon, Jabès l’Egyptien, Paris: Jean-Michel Place, 1998
Steven Jaron, ed., Portrat(s) d’Edmond Jabès, Bibilothèque nationale de France, 1999
Eric Benoit, Ecrire le cri: Le livre des questions d’Edmond Jabès,
Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2000
De la crise du sens à la quête du sens: Mallarmé, Bernanos, Jabès,
Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 2001
In English:
Paul Auster, "Interview with Edmond Jabès," Montemora, #6 (1979),
reprinted in The Sin of the Book
Eric Gould, ed., The Sin of the Book: Edmond Jabès, University of Nebraska Press, 1985
—, Studies in 20th Century Literature, 12, No.1: Edmond Jabès Issue (Fall 1987)
Warren Motte Jr., Questioning Edmond Jabès, University of Nebraska Press, 1990
Jason Weiss, Writing at Risk: Interviews in Paris with Uncommon Writers,
University of Iowa Press, 1991
Rosmarie Waldrop, Lavish Absence: Recalling and Rereading Edmond Jabès,
Wesleyan University Press, 2002
Honors:
1970 Prix des Critiques (for Elya)
1982 Prix des arts, des Lettres et des sciences of the Foundation for French Judaism
1983 Pasolini Prize [Italy]
1987 Citadella Prize [Italy]
1987 Grand prix national de la poésie
1998 Officier de la Légion d’Honneur and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres
The Book of Questions, Wesleyan University Press, 1976-1984
I. The Book of Questions, 1976
II / III. The Book of Yukel / Return to the Book, 1977
IV / V / VI. Yaël, Elya, Aely, 1983
VII. El, or the Last Book, 1984
The Book of Dialogue
The Book of Shares
The Book of Resemblances, Wesleyan University Press, 1990
I. The Book of Resemblances, 1990
II. Intimations The Desert, 1991
III. The Ineffaceable The Unperceived, 1992
From the Book to the Book
A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Book
The Book of Margins
The Little Book of Unsuspected Subversion
Desire for a Beginning Dread of One Single End
A Share of Ink
If There Were Anywhere But Desert
From the Desert to the Book
Paul Auster, "Interview with Edmond Jabès," Montemora, #6 (1979),
reprinted in The Sin of the Book
Eric Gould, ed., The Sin of the Book: Edmond Jabès, University of Nebraska Press, 1985
Studies in 20th Century Literature, 12, No.1: Edmond Jabès Issue (Fall 1987)
Warren Motte Jr., Questioning Edmond Jabès, University of Nebraska Press, 1990
Jason Weiss, Writing at Risk: Interviews in Paris with Uncommon Writers,
University of Iowa Press, 1991
Rosmarie Waldrop, Lavish Absence: Recalling and Rereading Edmond Jabès,
Wesleyan University Press, 2002
Edmond Jabes, Suez Crisis, Jews
July 2, 2006