Patrice de La Tour du Pin

Patrice Arthur Élie Humbert de La Tour du Pin Chambly de La Charce (16 March 1911 – 28 October 1975) was a French writer and poet.

Biography

Patrice de La Tour du Pin was born in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, the third child and second son of François de La Tour du Pin Chambly de La Charce (1878–1914), lieutenant in the 298th Infantry Regiment, and Brigitte O'Connor (1880–1948).

On his father's side, he is a descendant of René de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet, one of the oldest and most powerful families in the Dauphiné and the origin of several Dauphins de Viennois, while his mother is a descendant of Condorcet.

He was just three years old when his father was killed at the Battle of the Marne at the start of the World War I. Patrice grew up with his sister and older brother, between Paris and Le Bignon-Mirabeau in the Gâtinais region, raised by his mother and grandmother.

A discreet Catholic poet and mystic, resolutely non-media-friendly, he entered into dialogue with all the circles of his time, including atheist thought.

He was educated at Sainte-Croix in Neuilly-sur-Seine, then at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, and entered the École Libre des Sciences Politiques.

He became particularly well known at this time with the publication of La Quête de joie, written in 1930 at the age of 19 and published in 1933 by Editions de la Tortue, after Supervielle had unsuccessfully submitted the manuscript to the Nouvelle Revue Française. In this collection, it was the poem "Enfants de septembre" in particular that made him famous. He then published L'Enfer (1935) and Le Lucernaire (1936) in the Cahiers de Barbarie collection, edited in Tunis by Armand Guibert. He also began to publish poems, which he later collected in Une somme de poésie: Le Don de la Passion in 1937 in the Cahiers des poètes catholiques, Psaumes in 1938 with Gallimard, La Vie recluse en poésie in 1938 with Plon, Les Anges in 1939 in Tunis. It can therefore be said that this poetic work represents a unique instance of a young French author's work being revealed to the metropolis by one of its colonies.

The French Academy awarded him the Maurice-Trubert Prize in 1938.

Mobilized at the start of the World War II, he was taken prisoner during the Phoney War on October 17, 1939, and interned in Oflag IV-D. He remained in Germany for three years. Every day of his captivity, he continued to write his poems (which became the first part of the Somme); this was the most productive period of his life, at the very heart of confinement. On his return, he married his cousin Anne de Bernis Calvière, and continued to publish the Somme de poésie.

After the war, he lived with his wife Anne and their four daughters in Le Bignon. He continued to work discreetly on the Somme, which was not published in its entirety in three volumes until 1981–1983. In 1963, he moved to Paris, where he published Petit Théâtre crépusculaire, the beginning of the third volume of Une somme de poésie.

It's a little-known fact that he also played a major role in drafting the translation of the Bible for the French-speaking Catholic liturgy, following Vatican II's decision to use the vernacular languages for the Mass. From 1964 onwards, he was particularly involved in drafting the psalms as part of the Liturgical Translation Commission. He also wrote many of the first post-conciliar liturgical chants for the French-language Catholic breviary liturgy, many of them set to music by Didier Rimaud and Joseph Gelineau. Amour qui planais sur les eaux (reference SECLI KP72-1) is undoubtedly his best-known song. His songs are best suited to monastic settings, but it's not uncommon to hear them at Sunday gatherings too.

He was the winner of the Grand prix catholique de littérature in 1971 for Une Lutte pour la vie.

He died in the 6th arrondissement of Paris at the age of 64. His wife died in 2015 at the age of 94. He is buried in the O'Connor family enclosure near their chapel in the Bignon-Mirabeau cemetery.

Works

• "D'un aventurier". Poème, dans la revue Mirages, Tunis. 1934.
• L'Enfer. Tunis, Cahiers de Barbarie, n° 7, 1ère série, 1935, 80p. Reprint with lithographs by Elie Grekoff, Paris, Éditions de Cluny, 1949
• Le Lucernaire. Tunis, Cahiers de Barbarie, n° 13, 2ème série, 1936, 82 pp.
• Les Anges. Tunis, éd. Monomotapa, 1939.
• Psaumes, Paris, Éditions Gallimard, 1938, ISBN 2070237605
• La Quête de joie, Gallimard, 1939 ISBN 2070237613 - Prix Mallarmé (which the author declined)
• Une somme de poésie, Gallimard, 1946, ISBN 2070237621.
• La Contemplation errante, Gallimard, 1948, ISBN 207023763X
• Le Second Jeu (Une somme de poésie, II), Gallimard, 1959, ISBN 2070237656
• Petit théâtre crépusculaire (Une somme de poésie, III), Gallimard, 1963, ISBN 2070237664
• Petite somme de poésie, Gallimard, 1967, ISBN 2070301583
• Une lutte pour la vie, Gallimard, 1970, ISBN 2070271498, Grand prix catholique de littérature 1971
• Psaumes de tous mes temps, Gallimard, 1974, ISBN 2070288072
• Une somme de poésie, Gallimard, 1981:
  • Tome I  : Le Jeu de l'homme en lui-même, ISBN 2070250385
  • Tome II  : Le Jeu de l'homme devant les autres, 1982, ISBN 2070223205
  • Tome III : Le Jeu de l'homme devant Dieu, 1983, ISBN 2070259773

Bibliography

• "Patrice de La Tour du Pin — Promotion 1928," Bulletin de Sainte-Croix de Neuilly (numéro de Pentecôte 1976), pp. 92–94.

References

• Béguin, Albert (1946). "Approches de l’incommunicable," Esprit, No. 128, pp. 881–88.
• Biéville-Noyant, Anne (1948). Patrice de la Tour du Pin. Paris: Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue
• Colliard, Lauro-Aimé (2002). Patrice de La Tour du Pin, Jean Guitton et Yves Congar: Trois pionniers de l'oecuménisme entre barbelés et miradors. Paris: Éd. Don Bosco.
• Despax, Arnaud (2018). Totalité et poésie au XXe siècle. Paris: Honoré Champion.
• Fiori, Gabriella (2011). Patrice de La Tour du Pin: L'oro della notte. Milano: Servitium.
• Garfitt, Toby (2002). "Patrice de La Tour du Pin." In: Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 258: Modern French Poets. Gale Group, pp. 271–84.
• Garfitt, Toby (2011). "Patrice de La Tour du Pin lecteur de Newman." In: Isabelle Renaud-Chamska, ed., Patrice de La Tour du Pin, un poète de notre temps. Paris: Lethielleux, pp. 63–69.
• Gauthier, Jacques (1989). La Théopoésie de Patrice de La Tour du Pin. Montréal: Éd. Bellarmin/Paris: Éd. du Cerf.
• Gauthier, Jacques (1995). Que cherchez-vous au soir tombant? Dix hymnes de Patrice de La Tour du Pin. Paris: les Éd. du Cerf/Montréal: Médiaspaul.
• Gauthier, Jacques (1999). Prier 15 jours avec Patrice de La Tour du Pin. Montrouge: Nouv. cité.
• Kushner, Eva (1961). Patrice de La Tour du Pin. Paris: P. Seghers.
• Le Han, Marie-Josette (1996). Patrice de La Tour du Pin: La quête d'une théopoésie. Paris: H. Champion.
• Lobet, Marcel (1991). De Claudel à Patrice de La Tour Du Pin. Hannut: Société Paul Claudel en Belgique.
• Renaud-Chamska, Isabelle (2005). Patrice de La Tour Du Pin: La quête de joie au coeur d'Une somme de poésie. Genève: Droz.

External links

• Works by Patrice de La Tour du Pin at Gallica
• Société des Amis de Patrice de La Tour du Pin
• Article qui retrace le parcours de Patrice de La Tour du Pin
• Patrice de La Tour du Pin on La Croix
• Patrice de La Tour du Pin on Éditions Gallimard