The Quest for the Lost Proust
Edouard Roditi
Preface
by Karl Orend Edouard Roditi is little known to the general public, even if amongst those with a deep interest in literature and art he is often seen as an important and brilliant contributor in the fields of literature, translation and art and literary criticism. Born into a Sephardic family in Paris in 1910, Roditi studied at Oxford and the University of Chicago, and from his early years had contact withiportant figuresin twentieth century literature. At the age of nineteen he published the ifrst Surrealist manifesto in English, entitled The New Reality. He worked at Éditions de Saggitaire, a major published of Surrealist works, and was a friend of several Surrealists, especially André Breton, whose work he later translated. He had also begun to translate Léon-Paul Fargue and other important French writers before he was twenty. Roditi befriended James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Gerrude Stein, Sylvai Beach, Samuel Beckett and many other literary figures, also publishing in, among others, Transition and The Criterion. Between 1929-37 he lived in London, Paris and Berlin. He moved to America once the likelihood of war became imminent. He was later an interpreter at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. |
For the rest of his life, first in America, and later, in Paris, Roditi held several important teaching positions at universities, and worked as a high level translator and simultaneous interpreter, often for the American government. Roditi was mulltilingual and made his name as a major literary translator from and into laugnuages as divderse and German, Portuguese, Hebrew, Spanish, Danish and Turkish. For example, he translated Fernando Pessoa’s poems into English. Roditi published and translated many books, ranging form short stories and poems to literary essays, memoirs, novels, literary and art critism and interviews with famous subjects. Some of his books, such as Dialogues on Art, are considered modern classics.
In the latter part of his life, Edouard Roditi wrote a series of essays and short memoirs about his interractions with famous writers. The following essay is one of the most personal, but it is also an important meditation on the transformation that occurs when a writer uses events and people from their own lives in the composition of fiction. Event he most seemingly autobiographical of writers, such as Henry Miller, are in fact completely transforming their daily lives and personalities and those of the models for their characters to the point one usually would not recognized them if one read about htem first and then met them. Eudora Welty, when she met the author of Tropic of Cancer, said when he seemd like a mild mannered store clerk, not the braggadoicio-filled hero of his sexcapades. This dichotomy between real life and public image was at the heart of many of Roditi’s essays on writers, such as that on Paul Celan, whom he sees as a figurehead for a cult of personality. He believed that Celan had been sanctified and was considered above criticism because of his close identification as “bard of the Holocaust.” Writing about his private life became taboo. Roditi provides a stark reminder that biographies are not fixed, and they do not tell the whole story, determined as they are by the filter the author chooses consciously or unconsciously to place upon them, and the demands of the public.
Roditi's "Quest for the Lost Proust," is one which in its entirety sheds new light on Marcel Proust through the author's own personal memories and remembrances of those who knew them both. It is an essay that brings everyday man into focus through small details and chance encounters, providing us with a new perspective on Proust the man, who became one of the great writers of his time.
In the latter part of his life, Edouard Roditi wrote a series of essays and short memoirs about his interractions with famous writers. The following essay is one of the most personal, but it is also an important meditation on the transformation that occurs when a writer uses events and people from their own lives in the composition of fiction. Event he most seemingly autobiographical of writers, such as Henry Miller, are in fact completely transforming their daily lives and personalities and those of the models for their characters to the point one usually would not recognized them if one read about htem first and then met them. Eudora Welty, when she met the author of Tropic of Cancer, said when he seemd like a mild mannered store clerk, not the braggadoicio-filled hero of his sexcapades. This dichotomy between real life and public image was at the heart of many of Roditi’s essays on writers, such as that on Paul Celan, whom he sees as a figurehead for a cult of personality. He believed that Celan had been sanctified and was considered above criticism because of his close identification as “bard of the Holocaust.” Writing about his private life became taboo. Roditi provides a stark reminder that biographies are not fixed, and they do not tell the whole story, determined as they are by the filter the author chooses consciously or unconsciously to place upon them, and the demands of the public.
Roditi's "Quest for the Lost Proust," is one which in its entirety sheds new light on Marcel Proust through the author's own personal memories and remembrances of those who knew them both. It is an essay that brings everyday man into focus through small details and chance encounters, providing us with a new perspective on Proust the man, who became one of the great writers of his time.
In Part I of this section on Edouard Roditi, Witty Partition brings you an excerpt from Roditi's "Quest" — "Jupien's Bath." "Jupien's Bath" is but a glimpse—but what a glimpse!—into Roditi's more amplified search. In Part II we offer a joint translation of a poem by Celan, from the Romanian, by Roditi and Chris Sawyer-Lauçanno.
Permission to reprint this introduction and the following Roditi material, Karl Orend, Alyscamps Press, Paris, 2021
Permission to reprint this introduction and the following Roditi material, Karl Orend, Alyscamps Press, Paris, 2021