Félicien Champsaur

Félicien Champsaur is a writer and Journaliste French (1858 - 1934).

Wire of Joseph Louis Champsaur, gendarme, and from Marie Magdeleine Joséphine Arnaud, it was born the January 10th 1858 with Turriers in the the Low-Alps close to Digne, and died in Paris the December 22nd 1934 in its 82, avenue Foch apartment.

Today forgotten, it was however one of the most productive writers of the end of the 19th century and first half of 20th. It leaves with the posterity an important journalistic production and novels impressed of a creative freedom and a disconcerting modernism ( Dinah Samuel, Lulu ,…).

Provincial young person in search of success, Félicien Champsaur illustrates himself first of all in Paris by his prolix journalistic activity. He collaborates in various newspapers ( Le Figaro , the Gallic , the Event …) and takes part in some reviews which flower on the left bank ( modern Revue and naturalist ,…). He also founds the Men of today (in collaboration with André Gill), the newspaper Hydropathe (with Emile Goudeau), the Contemporaries (with Alfred Small the) and various other reviews which will be a relatively transitory success ( Panurge, the Schools …).

Usual of the literary circles and the Montmartrean breweries where is built a modern design of the literature and arts ( the club of Hydropathes, the black Cat ,…), it enivre of all the pleasures which the space of Parisian artistic creation offers where it foresees the bases of its artistic company. He then attends certain famous figures of artistic and literary Paris (Hugo, Verlaine, Rops, Grévin, Rodin…).

Journalism with the novel while passing by the poetic, dramaturgic or pantomimic writing, Félicien Champsaur leaves with the posterity a variegated and eclectic artistic work. Intermingling with the novel various brought back parts (articles, poems, mimes, ballets, musical partitions,…), a plastic dimension diffused by the proliferation of illustrations and daring page layouts, it incarnates today still a new romantic freedom. Artist nourishing Parisian artistic diversity, it dreamed and defended a resolutely modern formal freedom of expression:

“ I believe that the novel must be multiform, of an always renewed originality and deep life, artist, avoided of all the literary richnesses. He must, veracious, populated real types, chosen in the existence, to take as a starting point the characters observed men and women, but not to restrict themselves to solidify them in unspecified photographs, even improved by a careful craftsman. The literature contains, summarizes and diffuses all arts: it must mix them in its artifices ” ( Lulu , clownesque novel).

Pincipaux works

Dinah Samuel , Ollendorff, 1882, Romance with key
Miss América , Ollendorff, 1885, Romance.
Entered clowns , Levy, 1886, collection of news.
Parisian , Lemerre, 1887, collection of poems.
the Gipsies , Dentu, 1887, lyric Ballet in 4 acts and 9 tables, illustrated by Jules Chéret.
Excentric , Dentu, 1888, mime in an act illustrated by Chéret, Gerbault, Morin.
the Lover of the dancers , Dentu, 1888, Romance.
Éreintés of the life , Dentu, 1888, mime in an act illustrated by Gerbault.
the Gum , Dentu, 1889, Parts in three acts illustrated by Chéret, Caran d' Ache, Gerbault.
the Mandarin , Ollendorff, 1895-1896, romantic trilogy (I: Marquisette - II: a Master - III: Terror )
Regina Sandri , Ollendorff, 1898, Romance.
the fault of the pinks , Fasquelle, 1899, Romance.
Japanese Headstocks , Fasquelle, 1900, Romance.
Excentric , Fasquelle, 1901, Romance clownesque illustrated by (inter alia) Vat, Bourdelle, Bottini, Cappiello, Trawl-net, Chéret, Gerbault, Rops, Van Beers, Willette…
the sower of love , Fasquelle, 1902, Romance Hindu.
the Latin Orgy , Fasquelle, 1903, Romance antique illustrated by Auguste Leroux.
Ingenuous the , Douville, 1905, novel illustrated by Maurice de Lambert.
the Caravan in madness , Fasquelle, 1912, Romance “colonial”
the Stringcourse , Rebirth of the book, 1916, novel illustrated by Raphaël Kirchner.
Homo Deus , Ferenczi, 1923, Romance.
To kill the old men. To enjoy! , Ferenczi, 1925, Romance “cow”.
the Way of the desire , Ferenczi, 1926, first shutter of a romantic trilogy.
the combat of the sexes , Ferenczi, 1927, second shutter of the same trilogy.
the household refuse , Ferenczi, 1927, last shutter.
Jazz of the masks , Ferenczi, 1928, Romance.

Some journalistic works

the massacre , Dentu, 1885, collection of articles published with the Barber .
the brain of Paris , Dentu, 1886, articles, chronicles and criticisms of the Parisian artistic life.
the Procession , Havard, 1887, collection of articles.
modern Masks , Dentu, 1889, collection of articles and chronicles.

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