Supervielle, Jules

(1884-1960)

   poet, novelist

   Of Basque origin, Jules Supervielle, who was born in Montevideo, uruguay, spent his entire life in France or South America. All his work is filled with memories of the vast empty spaces of the pampas and the ocean, the frequency of which he often uses to give a sense of distance and isolation. But his first publications, the Poèmes de l'humour triste (1919) and L'Homme de la pampa (1925), a free essay and a whimsical novel, respectively, hid the poet's feeling of anguish. It was only when, at age 40, with Gravitations (1925), that Supervielle found his true style. After this, he composed a number of poetry collections, like Le Forçat innocent (1930), Les Amis inconnus (1934), Oublieuse Mémoire (1949), Naissances (1951), Le Corps tragiques (1959); some stories, the genre that demonstrates most profoundly his talent (Le Voleur d'enfants, 1926; L'Enfant de la haute mer, 1931; Le Jeune Homme de dimanche et des autres jours, 1952); and plays (La Belle au bois, 1932; Bolivar, 1936; Scéhérazade, 1949). Supervielle chose to remain apart from the surrealist movement. His work, presented in a clear vocabulary and populated essentially with flora and fauna, describes a recognizable and attainable world.