Poems of A. O. Barnabooth

by Valery Larbaud, Ron Padgett (Translator), Bill Zavatsky (Translator)

In 1908 a small volume of poetry was published in Paris by an unknown author named A. O. Barnabooth-who in fact did not exist. Only after the book received favorable reviews by major French writers and critics did its real author, Valery Larbaud, step forward to claim Barnabooth as his alter ego. The revised and expanded 1913 edition of the book, with Larbaud credited as its author, has become a classic, eventually being included in the esteemed Pleiade series of books devoted to great French writers and has remained in print in France for almost 100 years now. In The Poems of A. O. Barnabooth Larbaud expresses an ambivalent yearning for exotic places where one might be exalted by both the sadness and the beauty of life. He is fascinated by otherness. But, as Rimbaud put it, I is another. Larbaud/Barnabooth says, I always write with a mask upon my face. but sometimes this mask dissolves. Larbaud's modulation between cynical despair and the simple pleasures of everyday life bare the mercurial heart of a young poet fascinated by the mystery of identity, making The Poems of A. O. Barnabooth the marvelous and modern book that it is. This current bilingual edition, translated by the poets Ron Padgett and Bill Zavatsky, includes an introduction, additional poems by Larbaud, period post card illustrations, and detailed notes for all the poems.

Genres: Poetry, France

225 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1908

About the author

He was born in Vichy, Allier, the only child of a pharmacist. His father died when he was 8, and he was brought up by his mother and aunt. His father had been owner of the Vichy Saint-Yorre mineral water springs, and the family fortune assured him an easy life. He travelled Europe in style. On luxury liners and the Orient Express he carried off the dandy role, with spa visits to nurse fragile health.
Poèmes par un riche amateur, published in 1908, received Octave Mirbeau's vote for Prix Goncourt. Three years later, his novel Fermina Márquez, inspired by his days as a boarder at Sainte-Barbe-des-Champs at Fontenay-aux-Roses, had some Prix Goncourt votes in 1911.
He spoke six languages including English, Italian and Spanish. In France he helped translate and popularise Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Walt Whitman, Samuel Butler, and James Joyce, whose Ulysses was translated by Auguste Morel (1924-1929) under Larbaud's supervision.
At home in Vichy, he saw as friends Charles-Louis Philippe, André Gide, Léon-Paul Fargue and Jean Aubry, his future biographer. An attack of hemiplegia and aphasia in 1935 left him paralysed. Having spent his fortune, he had to sell his property and 15,000 book library. Despite his illness, he continued to receive many honorary titles, and in 1952 he was awarded the Prix National des Lettres.
The Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud was created in 1957 by L'Association Internationale des Amis de Valery Larbaud, a group created to promote the author's work. Past winners of this yearly award include J.M.G. Le Clézio, Jacques Réda, Emmanuel Carrère, and Jean Rolin.
Georges Perec's character Bartlebooth is a cross between Melville's Bartleby and Larbaud's Barnabooth.

Reviews

[Laurent De Maertelaer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Selectie van twaalf gedichten van Larbauds immer geweldige alter ego Barnabooth (een inspiratiebron voor Perec in 'La vie mode d'emploi').

[Ker]

Cosmopolitan, exotic, lyrical... amazingly modern poems written more than one hundred years ago. Translated from the French.

Full disclosure: I designed this book.

[heyyonicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il y a des poèmes super, d'autres qui se démarquent moins, mais l'ensemble est satisfaisant. On voyage, on se plaint, on déclame, il y a des Ô toutes les trois pages... je m'y suis retrouvé. Petit bémol : difficile de savoir si A.O. Barnabooth (l'alter ego de Valery Larbaud) partage la même vision que son créateur, car il est un peu connard sur les bords (aristo aux visions bien orientalistes et un peu misogyne si je ne me trompe pas...). A remettre dans le contexte de son époque i guess

[salva · Rating 2 out of 5]

mid idk por qué es un autor de culto

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

modern poetry that takes us all over Europe! like it