Germain Nouveau

Germain Marie Bernard Nouveau was born and died in Pourrières, Var, in France (31 July 1851 - 4 April 1920). He was a French poet associated with the symbolist movement, and a friend of Rimbaud and Verlaine. In 1874 he traveled to London with Rimbaud. In 1876 he published "Dixains réalistes," a parody of the Parnassians. In 1879-1881 he wrote "Doctrine de l'amour" a book of poems he later rejected but which was published despite his wishes in 1904. Toward the end of his life, he converted to Catholicism, and he died in poverty. Among his best known poems are "Les Cathédrales." Several posthumous poems and other works are collected in the Pléiade edition (Oeuvres Complètes. Pierre-Olivier Walzer (ed.) Paris: Gallimard, 1970).

Early life

Nouveau was one of four children of Felicien Nouveau (1826–1884) and Marie Silvy (1832–1858). His mother died before he was seven years old, and he was raised by his grandfather. He spent most of his childhood at Aix-en-Provence, and he moved to Paris in the fall of 1872.

Early Career

In Paris in 1872 he published his first poem, "Sonnet of Summer," and he discovered the work of poets Verlaine and Rimbaud. At the end of 1873, he met Rimbaud in person, and together they went to England in March, 1874. He lived with Rimbaud in London at 178 Stamford Street before returning to Paris alone three months later.

Mid-Career, Travel, and Mental Illness

Nouveau travelled to Belgium and the Netherlands, and in 1875 in Brussels he received from Verlaine the manuscript of Rimbaud's Illuminations. He returned to London where he met Verlaine, who became a long-time friend. In 1878, Nouveau contributed to the French periodicals Le Gaulois and Le Figaro under the pseudonym Jean de Noves (one of many noms de plume he used), before travelling to Beirut in 1883. When he returned home, he taught in a "lycee" in Paris before being struck by a mysterious mental illness in 1891 and spending several months in a mental hospital.

Religious Conversion and Pilgrimage

After his mental breakdown, Nouveau voluntarily embarked upon a life of poverty, modelling himself after Saint Benoit Labre. He travelled to Rome and made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela before returning to the village of his birth in 1911, where he died in 1920.

Legacy

Much of Nouveau's work was published and became known after his death. He had a substantial influence on the Surrealists, and critics such as Louis Aragon have called him "not a minor poet but a great poet...equal to Rimbaud."

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  5, rue Germain Nouveau
  in Pourrières
  Germain Nouveau’s house where he died on April 4, 1920
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  Germain Nouveau
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  Germain Nouveau's grave in Pourrières
  Epitaph
  Who died in poverty
  Him, of the pleiad of kings
  The greatest poet of the Var
  Germain Nouveau of Pourrières