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Portrait de Henri Michaux

Henri Michaux

There is no better secret than the one that we cannot tell, even if it means having a presentiment of it, of turning around it, of giving the impression that we know it. For example, we change the words. We adorn them with a head or a tail, which they are surprised to have. Better yet, we don't intervene. We let them scream.

What is there in common, the initiate said to himself, between the stupid chatter of people and me, whose head risks catching fire at any moment. The truth that I will succeed in revealing, the project that I carry in my heart, are they therefore guilty? Or if this project which searches me and invades me shows through my skin like the blood of anger?

He also says: when will I be able to give myself to my true task, to reveal to everyone the total universe that I carry, purer than the water of Niagara, more dazzling than a diamond - a world without laws and without rules, without space and without duration.

But who could imagine everything at once? Certainly not me. Nor you. There is no worse secret than that which one cannot think.

Jean Paulhan, 1966, in Complete Works, Tchou.

Resources

Images and portraits

The Henri Michaux website

Books and brochures by Henri Michaux

List of Henri Michaux exhibitions

A century of writers - Henri Michaux - video

Henri Michaux – A Life, a Work (1899-1984) (France Culture, 1999)

Henri Michaux is an aristocrat strapped in an intelligence that burns anyone who approaches him - France Culture

Henri Michaux resources - André Breton site

See The editorial staff of "Measures", Sylvia Beach, Barbara Church, Vladimir Nabokov, Adrienne Monnier, Germaine Paulhan, Henri Church, Henri Michaux, Jean Paulhan, Michel Leiris - photographed by Gisèle Freund in 1937, CGP.

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Bibliography of texts published in the NRF

The texts below, published in La Nouvelle Revue Française, are grouped into four main sets: texts by Henri Michaux, notes and columns by the author, texts about the author, and, when available, translations by the author.

Texts by Henri Michaux

  1. Le grand combat, 1927-05-01
  2. Chaînes enchaînées, 1928-08-01
  3. Ecuador, 1929-06-01
  4. Une vie de chien, 1929-10-01
  5. Trois nuits, 1930-04-01
  6. Un barbare aux Indes [en Asie], 1932-11-01
  7. Un barbare en Chine, 1932-12-01
  8. Mon Roi, 1933-09-01
  9. Dessins commentés, 1934-05-01
  10. C'était à l'aurore d'une convalescence, 1935-05-01
  11. Mœurs et coutumes des Emanglons, 1935-10-01
  12. La Ralentie, 1937-05-01
  13. Documentaire, 1937-11-01
  14. Quelque part, quelqu'un, 1938-10-01
  15. Voyage au pays de la magie, 1940-06-01
  16. Adieux de Anhimaharua, 1953-09-01
  17. Vents et Poussières, 1955-02-01
  18. Le Voyage difficile, 1956-05-01
  19. L'Infini turbulent, 1957-02-01
  20. Situations-Gouffres (I), 1960-04-01
  21. Situations-Gouffres (II), 1960-05-01
  22. Situations-Gouffres (Fin), 1960-06-01
  23. Les Présences qui ne devraient pas être là, 1965-07-01
  24. Tempérament de nuit, 1968-09-01

Notes by Henri Michaux

These texts by Henri Michaux may include reading notes, mood notes, performance reviews, miscellaneous pieces, or previously unpublished texts. They appeared in NRF sections such as Chronique des romans, L'air du mois, Le temps comme il passe, etc., or in tribute issues.

  1. Mœurs et coutumes des basses classes de l'Inde, par Georges Mac Munn (Payot), 1935-04-01, Revue des livres
  2. Direction : Indes, 1955-12-01, Les revues, les journaux
  3. Hauts-Reliefs, par Pierre Bettencourt (Galerie René Drouin), 1957-01-01, Notes : les arts
  4. Le phénomène qu'on appelle musique, 1958-05-01, Les revues
  5. La mouche, 1959-10-01, Le mois

Texts about Henri Michaux

These texts may include thematic studies about the author, correspondence, reading notes on works by or about the author, interviews conducted by the author, or works edited by the author.

  1. Mes propriétés, par Henri Michaux (Fourcade), by A. Rolland de Renéville, 1932-11-01, Notes : la poésie
  2. Sifflets dans le Temple, par Henri Michaux (Éditions G. L. M.), by A. Rolland de Renéville, 1936-11-01, Notes : la poésie
  3. Nouvelles de l'Étranger, par Henri Michaux (Mercure de France), by Henri Thomas, 1953-05-01, Notes : la poésie
  4. Face aux verrous, par Henri Michaux (Gallimard), by Georges Perros, 1954-07-01, Notes : la poésie
  5. Henri Michaux (Galerie La Hune), by René de Solier, 1956-04-01, Notes : les arts
  6. Le Darçana d'Henri Michaux, by Gabriel Bounoure, 1957-05-01, Chroniques
  7. Le Darçana d'Henri Michaux (Fin), by Gabriel Bounoure, 1957-06-01, Chroniques

Chronological distribution of texts published in the NRF (1908-1968)

This chart shows the chronological distribution of texts across the four categories defined above: Texts, Notes, Translations, and Texts about the author.

Bibliography of texts published in the journal Commerce

The texts below, published in the journal Commerce, are grouped into two sets: texts by Henri Michaux and texts translated by the author.

Texts by Henri Michaux

  1. L’époque des illuminés (p. 135-141), été 1927 [236 p.]
  2. Le fils du Macrocéphale (p. 111-123), hiver 1929 [246 p.]
  3. Un certain plume (p. 145-161), automne 1930 [200 p.]
  4. Nous autres (p. 101-102), printemps 1932 [198-(VI) p.]

Bibliography of texts published in the journal Mesures

The texts below, published in the journal Mesures, are grouped into two sets: texts by Henri Michaux and texts translated by the author.

Texts by Henri Michaux

  1. Voyage en grande Garabagne, 15 avril 1935 [206 p.]
  2. Portraits d’homme, 15 avril 1936 [196 p.]
  3. "Je vous écris d’un pays lointain", 15 avril 1937 [206 p.]
  4. Un peuple et un homme, 15 janvier 1938 [184 p.]
  5. Têtes…, 15 janvier 1939 [160 p.]
  6. Au pays de la magie, 15 janvier 1940 [176 p.]

Bibliography of texts published in Les Cahiers de la Pleiade

The texts below, published in Les Cahiers de la Pleiade, are grouped into three sets: texts by Henri Michaux, texts translated by the author, and texts about the author.

Texts by Henri Michaux

  1. D’Inridi à Kanira, avril 1946 [218 p.]
  2. Poésie pour pouvoir, printemps 1950 [208 p.]
  3. Tentative de commentaire sur les malédictions, printemps 1950 [208 p.]