Pierre Reverdy (1889–1960) was a French poet who, along with artists and writers such as Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, and Georges Braque, helped develop cubism and surrealism. Soon after the appearance of his first significant collection, Les Épaves du ciel (1924), his writing turned more mystical and Reverdy became a Catholic. In 1926 he retired to a life of ascetic seclusion near the Benedictine monastery at Solesmes and stayed there for the rest of his life.
Books
Pierre Reverdy
As Frank O’Hara once wrote in a poem, ‘My heart is in my pocket, it is Poems by Pierre Reverdy.’ A Catholic who lived much of his life in quasi-monasticism after an intense relationship with Coco Chanel, Reverdy has remained one of the most singular poets of his generation, and was described by André Breton as “The greatest poet of the time.” Here is a life-spanning selection of the French modernist’s work by the most revered translators of the language.