Saint-Pol Roux

(1861-1940) (Saint-Pol Roux the Magnificent)

   poet

   Born in Saint-Henry, near Marseille, Paul-Pierre Roux, or Saint-Pol Roux the Magnificent, as he is known, was a disciple of Stéphanie Mallarmé and, like him, was devoted to a cult of beauty. A symbolist, he is recognized for his baroque style (Manifeste du magnificisme, 1895), and he sought to be more of a dramatic writer than a poet (La Dame à la faulx, 1899), but none of his works was ever performed. it was above all for his recognition of the liberating power of the image and for his unique style that he emerged as a precursor of later traditions (De la colombe au corbeau par le paon, 18851904; Les Féeries intérieures, 1907). His talent was only later, and paradoxically, appreciated: A banquet given in his honor in a lilac grove became one of the greater scandals of the surrealist movement (1925). Saint-Pol Roux was killed during the first days of the Nazi occupation in his home near the Île-de-Camaret, where he had lived in retirement since 1905.