Jose María de Heredia

See also: Heredia

Jose María de Heredia (1842-1905) is a man of letters of cuban origin, naturalized French in 1893. As a poet, it is one of the Masters of the movement parnassien, true jeweller of the worms. Its poetic work consists of a single collection, the Trophies , including/understanding 118 sonnets which recall the history of the world, like the Conquerors , or who depict privileged moments, like the Coral reef .

Genealogy

Jose María de Heredia is the last wire of Gift Domingo de Heredia, resulting from an old Spanish family and his second wife, Louise François Girard, of an emigrated French family of Domingue Saint.
It had three girls:
*Helene (1871-1953), which married Maurice Maindron,
* Marie (1875-1963), who married Henri de Régnier, was the mistress of Pierre Louÿs and wrote under the pseudonym of Gerard d' Houville,
*Louise (1878-1930), which married Pierre Louÿs.

Biography

The poet came in the world in the family coffee plantation, named " Fortune" close to Santiago of Cuba on November 22nd, 1842. It came to France, with the college Saint Vincent de Senlis to continue its studies in 1851 there, at the nine years age, and it remained there until its baccalaureat, in 1859. It was there a pupil shining and very appreciated. The discovery, right before its return of the work of Leconte de Lisle, made on him a major impression. After its return to Cuba, in June 1859, it spent one year with Havana, looking further into its knowledge of the language and the Spanish literature with the project to continue if required there studies of Droit; it is in Cuba that it composed the first French poems which reached us. But it did not find with Havana the environment of work which it had known in France and in any event, the equivalence of the French baccalaureat was refused to him for administrative reasons; it thus returned to France since 1861 accompanied by his mother who, being widowed and having married her three oldest daughters made a point of taking care itself on the education and the control of her son and was registered in October of the same year to the Faculty of Law of Paris.

It followed in same time, on a purely foreign basis, the courses of the École of the charters of 1862 to 1865 when he was a brilliant and serious pupil. Its ambitions and its tastes were in fact more literary than legal, and the fortune of its family, managed with precision and rigor by his/her mother (the majority was fixed then in Spain at the 25 years age) saved to him during a certain time the material problems. It thus continued to write poems, in particular sonnets, and was quickly member of literary associations like the conference the Heather; it became one of the influential members of the school parnassienne. In 1863 it became acquainted with Leconte de Lisle, and collaborated in the contemporary Parnassus , tying friendships with authors like Sully Prudhomme, Catulle Mendès and Anatole France.

Poet parnassien, it quickly became famous in the Parisian literary circle; however, it published little, making appear its poetries in literary reviews of weak diffusion before joining together them extremely late (1893) in a volume of 118 sonnets, the Trophies , dedicated to Leconte de Lisle, which was crowned by the French Academy. He had already been prize winner of the Academy for a translation of Spanish, the veracious History of the conquest of the News Spain , by the captain Bernal Diaz del Castillo, he translated also Historia of Monja Alferez . He published with the Review of the Two Worlds , with the Temps and the Journal of the debates .

He was elected with the French Academy the February 22nd 1894 to replace Charles de Mazade and was accepted the May 30th 1895 by François Coppée. At the time of the voyage of the Russian sovereigns in Paris, in 1896, Jose María de Heredia composed the Salut with the Emperor , poem read by Paul Mounet, of the Comédie-Française, with the ceremony of the installation of the first stone of the Pont Alexandre-III. He was Member of the Commission of the dictionary. He became in 1901 conservative of the Bibliothèque of the Arsenal.

He created in 1902 the Société of the French Poets with Sully Prudhomme and Leon Dierx.

He died on October 2nd 1905 with the castle of Bourdonné, close to Houdan. He was buried on October 7th with the cemetery of Bonsecours (Seine-Maritime).

Works

  • Veracious history of the conquest of News-Spain , 3 volumes, 1877 - 1878, translation of Díaz del Castillo
  • the Trophies , 1893
  • the Nun Alferez , 1894
  • complete Poetries , with notes and alternatives, 1924

External bonds

  • Biographies: * '' the Trophies ''
  • Choice of poems

See too

  • Jose María Heredia Campuzano (December 31st, 1803 - May 21st, 1839)
  • José-María de Heredia remained there in the village of Marignac (Pyrenean Piedmont) whose panorama inspired it for one of the poems of its collection the Trophies .

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