Boris Vian
Encyclopedia
Boris Vian was a French polymath
: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator
, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their release. Vian's other fiction, published under his real name, featured a highly individual writing style with numerous madeup words, subtle wordplay and surrealistic plots. L'Écume des jours
(Froth on the Daydream) is the best known of these works, and one of the few translated into English.
Vian was also an important influence on the French jazz scene. He served as liaison for Hoagy Carmichael
, Duke Ellington
and Miles Davis
in Paris, wrote for several French jazz-reviews (Le Jazz Hot, Paris Jazz) and published numerous articles dealing with jazz both in the United States and in France. His own music and songs enjoyed popularity during his lifetime, particularly the anti-war song "Le Déserteur
" (The Deserter).
). His parents were Paul Vian, a young rentier
, and Yvonne Ramenez, amateur pianist and harpist. From his father Vian inherited the distrust of the Church and the Army, as well as a love of the bohemian life. Vian was the second of four children: the others were Lélio (1918), Alain (1921–1995) and Ninon (1924). The family occupied the Les Fauvettes villa. The name "Boris" does not indicate Russian ancestry; it was chosen by Yvonne, who was an avid classical music lover, after seeing a performance of Mussorgsky
's opera Boris Godunov
.
Vian suffered from ill health throughout his childhood and had to be educated at home until the age of five. From 1926 to 1932 he studied first at a small lycée, then at Lycée de Sèvres. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929
the family's financial situation worsened considerably and they moved to a small lodge near Les Fauvettes (from 1929 to 1932 the Vians rented the villa to Yehudi Menuhin
's family). Shortly after Vian's 12th birthday he developed rheumatic fever
, and after a while he also contracted typhoid. This combination led to severe health problems and left Vian with a heart condition that would ultimately lead to an early death.
in Versailles. In 1936 Vian and his two brothers started organizing what they called "surprise-parties" (surprises-parties). They partook of mescalin in the form of mexican cacti. These gatherings became the basis of his early novels: Trouble dans les andains(Turmoil in the Swaths) (1943) and particularly Vercoquin et le plancton(Vercoquin and the Plankton) (1943–44). It was also in 1936 that Vian got interested in jazz; the next year he started playing the trumpet and joined the Hot Club de France.
In 1937 Vian graduated from Lycée Hoche, passing baccalauréats in mathematics
, philosophy
, Latin, Greek
and German. He subsequently enrolled at Lycée Condorcet
, Paris, where he studied special mathematics until 1939. Vian became fully immersed in the French jazz scene: for example, in 1939 he helped organize Duke Ellington
's second concert in France. When the WWII started, Vian was not accepted into the army due to poor health. He entered École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures
in Paris, and subsequently moved to Angoulême
when the school moved there because of the war.
In 1940 Vian met Michelle Léglise, who became his wife in 1941. She taught Vian English and introduced him to translations of American literature. Also in 1940 Vian met Jacques Loustalot, who became a recurring character in several early novels and short stories. In 1942 Vian and his brothers joined a jazz orchestra under the direction of Claude Abbadie, who became a minor character in Vian's Vercoquin et le plancton. The same year Vian graduated from Ecole Centrale with a diploma in metallurgy, and also in 1942 Boris and Michelle's son Patrick
was born.
. By this time he was an accomplished jazz trumpetist, and in 1943 he wrote his first novel, Trouble dans les andains (Turmoil in the Swaths). His literary career started in 1943 with his first publication, a poem, in the Hot Club de France bulletin. The poem was signed Bison Ravi ("A Delighted Bison"), an anagram of Vian's real name. The same year Vian's father died, murdered at home by burglars.
In 1944 Vian completed Vercoquin et le plancton(Vercoquin and the Plankton), a novel inspired partly by surprise-parties of his youth, and partly by his job at the AFNOR (which is heavily satirized in the novel). Raymond Queneau
and Jean Rostand
helped Vian to publish this work at Éditions Gallimard
in 1947, along with several works Vian completed in 1946. These included his first major novels, L'Écume des jours
and L'automne à Pékin (Autumn in Peking). The former, a tragic love story in which real world objects respond to the characters' emotions, is now regarded as Vian's masterpiece, but at the time of its publication it failed to attract any considerable attention. L'automne à Pékin, which also had a love story at its heart but was somewhat more complex, also failed to sell well.
Frustrated by the commercial failure of his works, Vian vowed he could write a best-seller and wrote the hardboiled novel J'irai cracher sur vos tombes ("I Shall Spit on Your Graves") in only 15 days. Vian wrote an introduction in which he claimed to be the translator of the American shooting star writer by the name Vernon Sullivan. Vian persuaded his friend Jean d'Halluin, a beginning publisher, to publish the novel in 1947. Eventually the hoax became known and the book became one of the best-selling titles of that year. Vian wrote three more Vernon Sullivan novels in 1947–49.
The year 1946 marked a turning point in Vian's life: At one of the popular parties that he and Michelle hosted he made acquaintance of Jean-Paul Sartre
, Simone de Beauvoir
and Albert Camus
, became a regular in the inner literary cycles, and started regularly publishing various materials in Les Temps Modernes. Vian admired Jean-Paul Sartre in particular, and gave him a prominent role in "Froth on a Daydream". Ironically, Sartre and Michelle Vian commenced a relationship that would eventually destroy Vian's marriage.
Despite his literary work becoming more important, Vian never left the jazz scene. He became a regular contributor to various jazz-related magazines, and played trumpet at Le Tabou
. As a result, his financial situation improved, and he abandoned the job at the AFNOR. Vian also formed his own choir, La petite chorale de Saint-Germain-des-Pieds .
Vian's last novel, L'Arrache-cœur (The Heart-extractor), was published in 1953, yet again to poor sales, and Vian effectively stopped writing fiction (the only other work that appeared after 1953 was a revised version of L'automne à Pékin', published 1956). He concentrated on a new field, that of song-writing and performing, and continued writing poetry. Vian's songs were successful; in 1954 he embarked on his first tour as singer-songwriter. By 1955, when he was working as art director for Philips
, Vian was active in a wide variety of fields, from song-writing to opera, wrote screenplays and several more plays. His first album, Chansons possibles et impossibles (Possible and Impossible Songs), was also recorded in 1955. He was also the writer of the first French rock and roll
songs, with his friend Henri Salvador
, who sang them under the nickname Henry Cording. He wrote "Java Pour Petula" (a song about an English girl arriving in France, written in Parisian Argot) for Petula Clark's first concert performances in France.
Vian's life was endangered in 1956 by a pulmonary edema
, but he survived and continued working with the same intensity as before. In 1957 Vian completed another play, Les Bâtisseurs d'empire (The Empire Builders) (only published and staged in 1959); in 1958 Vian worked on the opera Fiesta with Darius Milhaud
, and a collection of essays, En avant la zizique... Et par ici les gros sous (On with the Muzak... And Bring in the Big Bucks), was published the same year.
en route to the hospital: .
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their release. Vian's other fiction, published under his real name, featured a highly individual writing style with numerous madeup words, subtle wordplay and surrealistic plots. L'Écume des jours
Froth on the daydream
Froth on the daydream is a novel written by French author Boris Vian, and published in 1947.It has been translated several times into English, under different titles...
(Froth on the Daydream) is the best known of these works, and one of the few translated into English.
Vian was also an important influence on the French jazz scene. He served as liaison for Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael
Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
and Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
in Paris, wrote for several French jazz-reviews (Le Jazz Hot, Paris Jazz) and published numerous articles dealing with jazz both in the United States and in France. His own music and songs enjoyed popularity during his lifetime, particularly the anti-war song "Le Déserteur
Le déserteur
Le déserteur is an opéra comique by the French composer Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny with a libretto by Michel-Jean Sedaine. It was first staged at the Comédie-Italienne, Paris on 6 March 1769....
" (The Deserter).
Early life
Boris Vian was born in 1920 into an upper middle-class family in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Ville d'Avray (Hauts-de-SeineHauts-de-Seine
Hauts-de-Seine is designated number 92 of the 101 départements in France. It is part of the Île-de-France region, and covers the western inner suburbs of Paris...
). His parents were Paul Vian, a young rentier
Rentier state
A rentier state is a term in political science and international relations theory used to classify those states which derive all or a substantial portion of their national revenues from the rent of indigenous resources to external clients.- Usage :...
, and Yvonne Ramenez, amateur pianist and harpist. From his father Vian inherited the distrust of the Church and the Army, as well as a love of the bohemian life. Vian was the second of four children: the others were Lélio (1918), Alain (1921–1995) and Ninon (1924). The family occupied the Les Fauvettes villa. The name "Boris" does not indicate Russian ancestry; it was chosen by Yvonne, who was an avid classical music lover, after seeing a performance of Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's opera Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
.
Vian suffered from ill health throughout his childhood and had to be educated at home until the age of five. From 1926 to 1932 he studied first at a small lycée, then at Lycée de Sèvres. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
the family's financial situation worsened considerably and they moved to a small lodge near Les Fauvettes (from 1929 to 1932 the Vians rented the villa to Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
's family). Shortly after Vian's 12th birthday he developed rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that occurs following a Streptococcus pyogenes infection, such as strep throat or scarlet fever. Believed to be caused by antibody cross-reactivity that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain, the illness typically develops two to three weeks after...
, and after a while he also contracted typhoid. This combination led to severe health problems and left Vian with a heart condition that would ultimately lead to an early death.
Formal education and teenage years
From 1932 to 1937 Vian studied at Lycée HocheLycée Hoche
The Lycée Hoche is a public secondary school located in Versailles, not very far away from the famous Palace of Versailles. Formerly, it had been a nunnery founded by French queen Maria Leszczyńska. However, after the French Revolution, it became a school in 1803...
in Versailles. In 1936 Vian and his two brothers started organizing what they called "surprise-parties" (surprises-parties). They partook of mescalin in the form of mexican cacti. These gatherings became the basis of his early novels: Trouble dans les andains(Turmoil in the Swaths) (1943) and particularly Vercoquin et le plancton(Vercoquin and the Plankton) (1943–44). It was also in 1936 that Vian got interested in jazz; the next year he started playing the trumpet and joined the Hot Club de France.
In 1937 Vian graduated from Lycée Hoche, passing baccalauréats in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, Latin, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and German. He subsequently enrolled at Lycée Condorcet
Lycée Condorcet
The Lycée Condorcet is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's IXe arrondissement. Since its inception, various political eras have seen it given a number of different names, but its identity today honors the memory of the Marquis de Condorcet. The...
, Paris, where he studied special mathematics until 1939. Vian became fully immersed in the French jazz scene: for example, in 1939 he helped organize Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
's second concert in France. When the WWII started, Vian was not accepted into the army due to poor health. He entered École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures
École Centrale Paris
École Centrale Paris is a French university-level institution in the field of engineering. It is also known by its original name École centrale des arts et manufactures, or ECP. Founded in 1829, it is one of the oldest and most prestigious engineering schools in France and has the special status...
in Paris, and subsequently moved to Angoulême
Angoulême
-Main sights:In place of its ancient fortifications, Angoulême is encircled by boulevards above the old city walls, known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are often narrow. Apart from the cathedral and the hôtel de ville, the...
when the school moved there because of the war.
In 1940 Vian met Michelle Léglise, who became his wife in 1941. She taught Vian English and introduced him to translations of American literature. Also in 1940 Vian met Jacques Loustalot, who became a recurring character in several early novels and short stories. In 1942 Vian and his brothers joined a jazz orchestra under the direction of Claude Abbadie, who became a minor character in Vian's Vercoquin et le plancton. The same year Vian graduated from Ecole Centrale with a diploma in metallurgy, and also in 1942 Boris and Michelle's son Patrick
Patrick Vian
-Biography:Vian is the son of French jazz trumpeter and poet Boris Vian. He first gained notability as a member of the progressive rock/protopunk band Red Noise ; the band formed at the Sorbonne in 1968, and played its first show during the occupation of the university...
was born.
Career
After Vian's graduation, he and Michelle moved to Paris' 10th arrondissement and, on 24 August 1942 became an engineer at the French Association for Standardisation (AFNOR)AFNOR
Association française de Normalisation is the French national organization for standardization and its International Organization for Standardization member body....
. By this time he was an accomplished jazz trumpetist, and in 1943 he wrote his first novel, Trouble dans les andains (Turmoil in the Swaths). His literary career started in 1943 with his first publication, a poem, in the Hot Club de France bulletin. The poem was signed Bison Ravi ("A Delighted Bison"), an anagram of Vian's real name. The same year Vian's father died, murdered at home by burglars.
In 1944 Vian completed Vercoquin et le plancton(Vercoquin and the Plankton), a novel inspired partly by surprise-parties of his youth, and partly by his job at the AFNOR (which is heavily satirized in the novel). Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
and Jean Rostand
Jean Rostand
Jean Rostand was a French biologist and philosopher.Active as an experimental biologist, Rostand became famous for his work as a science writer, as well as a philosopher and an activist...
helped Vian to publish this work at Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard is one of the leading French publishers of books. The Guardian has described it as having "the best backlist in the world". In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1418 titles....
in 1947, along with several works Vian completed in 1946. These included his first major novels, L'Écume des jours
Froth on the daydream
Froth on the daydream is a novel written by French author Boris Vian, and published in 1947.It has been translated several times into English, under different titles...
and L'automne à Pékin (Autumn in Peking). The former, a tragic love story in which real world objects respond to the characters' emotions, is now regarded as Vian's masterpiece, but at the time of its publication it failed to attract any considerable attention. L'automne à Pékin, which also had a love story at its heart but was somewhat more complex, also failed to sell well.
Frustrated by the commercial failure of his works, Vian vowed he could write a best-seller and wrote the hardboiled novel J'irai cracher sur vos tombes ("I Shall Spit on Your Graves") in only 15 days. Vian wrote an introduction in which he claimed to be the translator of the American shooting star writer by the name Vernon Sullivan. Vian persuaded his friend Jean d'Halluin, a beginning publisher, to publish the novel in 1947. Eventually the hoax became known and the book became one of the best-selling titles of that year. Vian wrote three more Vernon Sullivan novels in 1947–49.
The year 1946 marked a turning point in Vian's life: At one of the popular parties that he and Michelle hosted he made acquaintance of Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
, Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
and Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
, became a regular in the inner literary cycles, and started regularly publishing various materials in Les Temps Modernes. Vian admired Jean-Paul Sartre in particular, and gave him a prominent role in "Froth on a Daydream". Ironically, Sartre and Michelle Vian commenced a relationship that would eventually destroy Vian's marriage.
Despite his literary work becoming more important, Vian never left the jazz scene. He became a regular contributor to various jazz-related magazines, and played trumpet at Le Tabou
Le Tabou
Le Tabou was a cellar club located at 33 Rue Dauphine in Saint Germain des Pres, Paris. The club opened shortly after Club des Lorientais on 11 April 1947...
. As a result, his financial situation improved, and he abandoned the job at the AFNOR. Vian also formed his own choir, La petite chorale de Saint-Germain-des-Pieds .
Later years
The year 1948 saw the birth of Vian's daughter, Carole. He continued his literary career by writing Vernon Sullivan novels, and also published poetry collections: Barnum's Digest (1948) and Cantilènes en gelée (Cantelinas in Jelly)(1949). Vian also started writing plays, the first of which, L'Équarrissage pour tous (Slaughter for Everyone), was staged the year it was written, 1950. The same year saw publication of Vian's third major novel, L'Herbe rouge (The Red Grass). This was a much darker story than its predecessors, centering around a man who built a giant machine that could help him psychoanalyse his soul. Like the other two books, it did not sell well; Vian's financial situation was steadily worsening since late 1948, and he was forced to take up translation of English-language literature and articles. Vian separated from his wife and in 1950 he met Ursula Kübler, a Swiss dancer; the two started an affair and in 1951 Vian divorced Michelle. Ursula and Boris married in 1954.Vian's last novel, L'Arrache-cœur (The Heart-extractor), was published in 1953, yet again to poor sales, and Vian effectively stopped writing fiction (the only other work that appeared after 1953 was a revised version of L'automne à Pékin', published 1956). He concentrated on a new field, that of song-writing and performing, and continued writing poetry. Vian's songs were successful; in 1954 he embarked on his first tour as singer-songwriter. By 1955, when he was working as art director for Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
, Vian was active in a wide variety of fields, from song-writing to opera, wrote screenplays and several more plays. His first album, Chansons possibles et impossibles (Possible and Impossible Songs), was also recorded in 1955. He was also the writer of the first French rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
songs, with his friend Henri Salvador
Henri Salvador
Henri Salvador was a French Caribbean singer.-Biography:Salvador was born in Cayenne, French Guiana. His father, Clovis, and his mother, Antonine Paterne, daughter of a native Indian from the Caribbean, were both from Guadeloupe, French West Indies...
, who sang them under the nickname Henry Cording. He wrote "Java Pour Petula" (a song about an English girl arriving in France, written in Parisian Argot) for Petula Clark's first concert performances in France.
Vian's life was endangered in 1956 by a pulmonary edema
Pulmonary edema
Pulmonary edema , or oedema , is fluid accumulation in the air spaces and parenchyma of the lungs. It leads to impaired gas exchange and may cause respiratory failure...
, but he survived and continued working with the same intensity as before. In 1957 Vian completed another play, Les Bâtisseurs d'empire (The Empire Builders) (only published and staged in 1959); in 1958 Vian worked on the opera Fiesta with Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
, and a collection of essays, En avant la zizique... Et par ici les gros sous (On with the Muzak... And Bring in the Big Bucks), was published the same year.
Death
On the morning of 23 June 1959, Boris Vian was at the Cinema Marbeuf for the screening of the film version of J'irai cracher sur vos tombes. He had already fought with the producers over their interpretation of his work and he publicly denounced the film stating that he wished to have his name removed from the credits. A few minutes after the film began, he reportedly blurted out: "These guys are supposed to be American? My ass!" He then collapsed into his seat and died from sudden cardiac deathSudden Cardiac Death
Sudden cardiac death is natural death from cardiac causes, heralded by abrupt loss of consciousness within one hour of the onset of acute symptoms. Other forms of sudden death may be noncardiac in origin...
en route to the hospital: .
Novels
- Trouble dans les andains (Turmoil in the Swaths) (1942–43, published posthumously in 1966 by La Jeune Parque)
- Vercoquin et le plancton (Vercoquin and the Plankton) (1943–45, published 1947 by Éditions GallimardÉditions GallimardÉditions Gallimard is one of the leading French publishers of books. The Guardian has described it as having "the best backlist in the world". In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1418 titles....
) - L'Écume des joursFroth on the daydreamFroth on the daydream is a novel written by French author Boris Vian, and published in 1947.It has been translated several times into English, under different titles...
(Foam of the Days) (1946, published 1947 by Éditions Gallimard; translated variously as Froth on the Daydream, Mood Indigo and Foam of the Daze) - L'automne à Pékin (Autumn in Peking) (1946, published 1947 by Éditions du Scorpion, revised version published in 1956; Autumn in Peking)
- L'Herbe rouge (The Red Grass) (1948–49, published 1950 by Éditions Toutain)
- L'Arrache-coeur (Heartsnatcher) (1947–1951, published 1953 by Éditions Vrille; Heartsnatcher)
Vernon Sullivan novels
- J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (I Shall Spit on Your Graves) (Éditions du Scorpion, 1946; I Shall Spit on Your Graves)
- Les morts ont tous la même peau (The Dead All Have the Same Skin) (Éditions du Scorpion, 1947)
- Et on tuera tous les affreux (And One Shall Kill All the Dreadful Ones) (Éditions du Scorpion, 1948)
- Elles ne se rendent pas compte (They Do Not Realize) (1948–50, published 1950 by Éditions du Scorpion)
Short story collections
- Les Fourmis (The Ants) (1944–47, published 1949 by Éditions du Scorpion)
- Les Lurettes fourrées (Ages Fulfilled) (1948–49, published 1950 by Le Livre de Poche as an addendum to their edition of L'Herbe rouge)
- Le Ratichon baigneur (Toothy Bather) (1946–52, published posthumously in 1981 by Éditions Bourgois)
- Le Loup-garou (The Werewolf) (1945–53?, published posthumously in 1970 by Éditions Bourgois)
Dramatic works
- L'Équarrissage pour tous (Squaring for All), play (1947, published 1950 by Éditions Toutain)
- Le Dernier des métiers (The Last of the Trades), play (1950, published 1965 by Éditions Pauvert)
- Tête de Méduse (Medusa's Head), comedy in one act (1951, published 1971 by U.G.E.)
- Série Blême (Pallid Series), tragedy in three acts (1952?, published 1971 by U.G.E.)
- Le Chasseur français (The French Hunter), vaudeville (1955, published 1971 by U.G.E.)
- Les Bâtisseurs d'Empire (The Empire Builders), (1957, published 1959 by Collège de 'Pataphysique)
- Le Goûter des généraux (The Snack of Generals), (1951, published 1962 by Collège de 'Pataphysique)
Poetry
- Barnum's Digest (Barnum's Digest) (1948, a collection of 10 poems)
- Cantilènes en gelée (Cantilenas in Jelly) (1949)
- Je voudrais pas crever (I Would Like Not to Die) (posthumously published in 1962)
Translations
- The Big SleepThe Big SleepThe Big Sleep is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first in his acclaimed series about detective Philip Marlowe. The work has been adapted twice into film, once in 1946 and again in 1978...
by Raymond ChandlerRaymond ChandlerRaymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
as Le grand sommeil (1948) - The Lady in the LakeThe Lady in the LakeThe Lady in the Lake is a 1943 detective novel by Raymond Chandler featuring, as do all his major works, the Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe.-Introduction:...
by Raymond Chandler as La dame du lac (1948) - The World of Null-AThe World of Null-AThe World of Null-A, sometimes written The World of Ā, is a 1948 science fiction novel by A. E. van Vogt. It was originally published as a three-part serial in Astounding Stories...
by A. E. van VogtA. E. van VogtAlfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century: the "Golden Age" of the genre....
, as Le Monde des Å (1958)
Other works
- Manuel de St-Germain-des-Prés, originally commissioned to be a tourist guide to the St-Germain-des-Prés district (published 1950 by Éditions Toutain)
See also
- ExistentialismExistentialismExistentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
- Pataphysics
- ZazouZazouThe Zazous were a subculture in France during World War II. They were young people expressing their individuality by wearing big or garish clothing and dancing wildly to swing jazz and bebop...
- Amour de pocheAmour de pocheAmour de poche is a French comedy Fantasy film from 1957, directed by Pierre Kast, written by France Roche, starring Jean Marais. The scenario was based on a novel "Diminishing Draft" of Waldemar Kamempfert...
(1957)
External links
Boris Vian Official Web Site- Biography at the Radio France International Website Le Petit Cahier du Grand Boris Vian: Biography, Quotations, Articles, etc.
- Robert Whyte's Homepage, includes articles, dissertations and numerous other materials dealing with Vian's life and work
- Boris Vian page at the Tam Tam Books website, includes brief descriptions of several books
- Le Déserteur, a page about one of Vian's most popular songs Boris Vian, J'irai chanter sur vos tombes site-conférence du Hall de la Chanson
- vian in croatian language Songs and poems by Boris Vian (public domain in Canada)