Blaise Cendrars: The Invention of Life

(Hardback)

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In 1912 the young Frdric-Louis Sauser arrived in France, carrying an experimental poem and a new identity. Blaise Cendrars was born. Over the next half-century, Cendrars wrote innovative poems, novels, essays, film scripts, and autobiographical prose. His groundbreaking books and collaborations with artists such as Sonia Delaunay and Fernand Lger remain astonishingly modern today. Cendrarss writings reflect his insatiable curiosity, his vast knowledge, which was largely self-taught, and his love of everyday life.

In this new account, Eric Robertson examines Cendrarss work against a turbulent historical background and reassesses his contribution to twentieth-century literature. Robertson shows how Cendrars is as relevant today as ever and deserves a wider readership in the English-speaking world.

'The book is authoritatively well-informed about Cendrarss life, the historical background, and relevant literary theories that support the many original and insightful commentaries on his work. It is these very accessible discussions and analyses of individual books that establish this as a valuable contribution to literary scholarship.' Andrew Rothwell, professor of French and translation studies, Swansea University

Reviews

"[Blaise Cendrars] begins with an epigraph from Henry Miller: 'My hero is Blaise Cendrars, do you see He's my hero in every respect: as a man, as a personality, as a writer, his style of writing and everything that he did in his life to me is marvelous.' . . . Robertson's introduction tops off that encomium, touting Cendrars's life as an 'adventure story' played out in poems, novels, travel narratives, film scripts, short stories, critical essays, and radio plays."-- "New York Sun"
"Blaise Cendrars--the Swiss poet with one arm who was born under the name of Frdric-Louis Sauser--is an unsung hero of European modernism. Cendrars apparently lost his limb fighting with the French foreign legion during the first world war, one of many colorful details in the life of this little known polymath who collaborated with key artists such as Fernand Lger and Sonia Delaunay. The Invention of Life . . . reevaluates this revolutionary writer of the early twentieth century who was plugged into avant-garde art and literature."-- "Art Newspaper"
"Robertson's book-length study Blaise Cendrars: The Invention of Life is partly a biography but mainly a study of Cendrars's writings. . . . Robertson writes like a well-formed fan of an author's work, and therefore he shares that love for Cendrars and the world he conveys in his memoirs, poetry, screenwriting, and fiction. It was a very hard book for me to put down, and it reminded me of the importance of writers like Cendrars, who has a heroic stance in life; although not a perfect human being, he had qualities that one can admire from a distance."-- "World of Tosh Berman"

Author Bio

Eric Robertson is Professor of Modern French Literary and Visual Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has published widely on the European avant-gardes, including Arp: Painter, Poet, Sculptor (2006), winner of the R. Gapper Book Prize.