French poet whose works were inspired by and subsequently proceeded to influence the provocative art movements of the 1920s and 1930s, Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism. The loneliness and spiritual apprehension that ran through his poetry appealed to the Surrealist credo. However, he himself remained independent of the prevailing "isms," searching for something beyond their definitions. His writing matured into a mystical mission seeking, as he wrote: "the sublime simplicity of reality."
The son of a winegrower, Reverdy was born Henri-Pierre Reverdy in Occitanie (southern France), in the region of Narbonne, and grew up near the Montagne Noire. The Reverdy ancestors were stonemasons and sculptors associated with work commissioned for churches. Little is known about his childhood and early years. Some sources indicate that at the time of Reverdy's birth, his mother was a married woman whose husband was at the time living in Argentina. Further, it is believed that Reverdy's father and mother were not able to marry each other until 1897. His father schooled him at home, teaching him to read and write.
Reverdy arrived in Paris in October 1910, devoting his early years there to his writing. It was in Paris, at the artistic enclave centered around the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre that he met Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Philippe Soupault and Tristan Tzara. All would come to admire and champion Reverdy's poetry. Reverdy published a small volume of poetry in 1915. A second compilation of his work brought out in 1924, Les épaves du ciel, brought him greater recognition. These poems, short, fragmentary, the words an evocation of sharp visuals; the volume was the literary equivalent of the Plastic arts as practiced by Cubist painters and sculptors. In the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton hailed Reverdy as "the greatest poet of the time." Louis Aragon said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet."
In 1917, together with Max Jacob, Vicente Huidobro and Guillaume Apollinaire, Reverdy founded the influential journal Nord-Sud ("North-South") which contained many Dadaist and Surrealist contributions. Sixteen issues of Nord-Sud were published, from March 15, 1917 through October 15, 1918. It is believed Reverdy took his inspiration for the title of his periodical from the subway line, the Paris Métro, which in 1910 instituted a route running from Montmartre to Montparnasse; it was Reverdy's intention to unite the vitality of these two distinctive city districts.
By nature, Reverdy was a somber man, whose strong spiritual inclinations led him over time to distance himself from the frenetic world of bohemian Paris. In 1926, in a ritualistic act signifying the renunciation of the material world, he burned many of his manuscripts in front of an assembly of friends. He converted to Catholicism and retreated with his wife, the seamstress Henriette Charlotte Bureau, to a small house located in proximity to a Benedictine abbey at Solesmes. Excluding intermittent periods when he visited Paris, Solesmes was his home for the next thirty years where he lived a "quasi-monastic life." He died there in 1960.
One of Reverdy's most enduring and profound relationships was with the couturier, Coco Chanel. The intense period of their romantic liaison lasted from 1921-1926. Yet after the fire of this initial involvement cooled, they still maintained a deep bond and loving friendship, which would continue for over forty years in spite of his marriage to Henriette.
Reverdy had always been both appalled and intrigued by the wealth and excess that comprised Chanel's social circle. Chanel, however, was a necessary component in his poetic output. She bolstered his confidence, supported his creative ability and further helped assuage his financial instability by secretly buying his manuscripts through his publisher.
The son of a winegrower, Reverdy was born Henri-Pierre Reverdy in Occitanie (southern France), in the region of Narbonne, and grew up near the Montagne Noire. The Reverdy ancestors were stonemasons and sculptors associated with work commissioned for churches. Little is known about his childhood and early years. Some sources indicate that at the time of Reverdy's birth, his mother was a married woman whose husband was at the time living in Argentina. Further, it is believed that Reverdy's father and mother were not able to marry each other until 1897. His father schooled him at home, teaching him to read and write.
Reverdy arrived in Paris in October 1910, devoting his early years there to his writing. It was in Paris, at the artistic enclave centered around the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre that he met Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Philippe Soupault and Tristan Tzara. All would come to admire and champion Reverdy's poetry. Reverdy published a small volume of poetry in 1915. A second compilation of his work brought out in 1924, Les épaves du ciel, brought him greater recognition. These poems, short, fragmentary, the words an evocation of sharp visuals; the volume was the literary equivalent of the Plastic arts as practiced by Cubist painters and sculptors. In the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton hailed Reverdy as "the greatest poet of the time." Louis Aragon said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet."
In 1917, together with Max Jacob, Vicente Huidobro and Guillaume Apollinaire, Reverdy founded the influential journal Nord-Sud ("North-South") which contained many Dadaist and Surrealist contributions. Sixteen issues of Nord-Sud were published, from March 15, 1917 through October 15, 1918. It is believed Reverdy took his inspiration for the title of his periodical from the subway line, the Paris Métro, which in 1910 instituted a route running from Montmartre to Montparnasse; it was Reverdy's intention to unite the vitality of these two distinctive city districts.
By nature, Reverdy was a somber man, whose strong spiritual inclinations led him over time to distance himself from the frenetic world of bohemian Paris. In 1926, in a ritualistic act signifying the renunciation of the material world, he burned many of his manuscripts in front of an assembly of friends. He converted to Catholicism and retreated with his wife, the seamstress Henriette Charlotte Bureau, to a small house located in proximity to a Benedictine abbey at Solesmes. Excluding intermittent periods when he visited Paris, Solesmes was his home for the next thirty years where he lived a "quasi-monastic life." He died there in 1960.
One of Reverdy's most enduring and profound relationships was with the couturier, Coco Chanel. The intense period of their romantic liaison lasted from 1921-1926. Yet after the fire of this initial involvement cooled, they still maintained a deep bond and loving friendship, which would continue for over forty years in spite of his marriage to Henriette.
Reverdy had always been both appalled and intrigued by the wealth and excess that comprised Chanel's social circle. Chanel, however, was a necessary component in his poetic output. She bolstered his confidence, supported his creative ability and further helped assuage his financial instability by secretly buying his manuscripts through his publisher.
French poet whose works were inspired by and subsequently proceeded to influence the provocative art movements of the 1920s and 1930s, Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism. The loneliness and spiritual apprehension that ran through his poetry appealed to the Surrealist credo. However, he himself remained independent of the prevailing "isms," searching for something beyond their definitions. His writing matured into a mystical mission seeking, as he wrote: "the sublime simplicity of reality."
The son of a winegrower, Reverdy was born Henri-Pierre Reverdy in Occitanie (southern France), in the region of Narbonne, and grew up near the Montagne Noire. The Reverdy ancestors were stonemasons and sculptors associated with work commissioned for churches. Little is known about his childhood and early years. Some sources indicate that at the time of Reverdy's birth, his mother was a married woman whose husband was at the time living in Argentina. Further, it is believed that Reverdy's father and mother were not able to marry each other until 1897. His father schooled him at home, teaching him to read and write.
Reverdy arrived in Paris in October 1910, devoting his early years there to his writing. It was in Paris, at the artistic enclave centered around the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre that he met Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Philippe Soupault and Tristan Tzara. All would come to admire and champion Reverdy's poetry. Reverdy published a small volume of poetry in 1915. A second compilation of his work brought out in 1924, Les épaves du ciel, brought him greater recognition. These poems, short, fragmentary, the words an evocation of sharp visuals; the volume was the literary equivalent of the Plastic arts as practiced by Cubist painters and sculptors. In the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton hailed Reverdy as "the greatest poet of the time." Louis Aragon said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet."
In 1917, together with Max Jacob, Vicente Huidobro and Guillaume Apollinaire, Reverdy founded the influential journal Nord-Sud ("North-South") which contained many Dadaist and Surrealist contributions. Sixteen issues of Nord-Sud were published, from March 15, 1917 through October 15, 1918. It is believed Reverdy took his inspiration for the title of his periodical from the subway line, the Paris Métro, which in 1910 instituted a route running from Montmartre to Montparnasse; it was Reverdy's intention to unite the vitality of these two distinctive city districts.
By nature, Reverdy was a somber man, whose strong spiritual inclinations led him over time to distance himself from the frenetic world of bohemian Paris. In 1926, in a ritualistic act signifying the renunciation of the material world, he burned many of his manuscripts in front of an assembly of friends. He converted to Catholicism and retreated with his wife, the seamstress Henriette Charlotte Bureau, to a small house located in proximity to a Benedictine abbey at Solesmes. Excluding intermittent periods when he visited Paris, Solesmes was his home for the next thirty years where he lived a "quasi-monastic life." He died there in 1960.
One of Reverdy's most enduring and profound relationships was with the couturier, Coco Chanel. The intense period of their romantic liaison lasted from 1921-1926. Yet after the fire of this initial involvement cooled, they still maintained a deep bond and loving friendship, which would continue for over forty years in spite of his marriage to Henriette.
Reverdy had always been both appalled and intrigued by the wealth and excess that comprised Chanel's social circle. Chanel, however, was a necessary component in his poetic output. She bolstered his confidence, supported his creative ability and further helped assuage his financial instability by secretly buying his manuscripts through his publisher.
The son of a winegrower, Reverdy was born Henri-Pierre Reverdy in Occitanie (southern France), in the region of Narbonne, and grew up near the Montagne Noire. The Reverdy ancestors were stonemasons and sculptors associated with work commissioned for churches. Little is known about his childhood and early years. Some sources indicate that at the time of Reverdy's birth, his mother was a married woman whose husband was at the time living in Argentina. Further, it is believed that Reverdy's father and mother were not able to marry each other until 1897. His father schooled him at home, teaching him to read and write.
Reverdy arrived in Paris in October 1910, devoting his early years there to his writing. It was in Paris, at the artistic enclave centered around the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre that he met Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Philippe Soupault and Tristan Tzara. All would come to admire and champion Reverdy's poetry. Reverdy published a small volume of poetry in 1915. A second compilation of his work brought out in 1924, Les épaves du ciel, brought him greater recognition. These poems, short, fragmentary, the words an evocation of sharp visuals; the volume was the literary equivalent of the Plastic arts as practiced by Cubist painters and sculptors. In the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton hailed Reverdy as "the greatest poet of the time." Louis Aragon said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet."
In 1917, together with Max Jacob, Vicente Huidobro and Guillaume Apollinaire, Reverdy founded the influential journal Nord-Sud ("North-South") which contained many Dadaist and Surrealist contributions. Sixteen issues of Nord-Sud were published, from March 15, 1917 through October 15, 1918. It is believed Reverdy took his inspiration for the title of his periodical from the subway line, the Paris Métro, which in 1910 instituted a route running from Montmartre to Montparnasse; it was Reverdy's intention to unite the vitality of these two distinctive city districts.
By nature, Reverdy was a somber man, whose strong spiritual inclinations led him over time to distance himself from the frenetic world of bohemian Paris. In 1926, in a ritualistic act signifying the renunciation of the material world, he burned many of his manuscripts in front of an assembly of friends. He converted to Catholicism and retreated with his wife, the seamstress Henriette Charlotte Bureau, to a small house located in proximity to a Benedictine abbey at Solesmes. Excluding intermittent periods when he visited Paris, Solesmes was his home for the next thirty years where he lived a "quasi-monastic life." He died there in 1960.
One of Reverdy's most enduring and profound relationships was with the couturier, Coco Chanel. The intense period of their romantic liaison lasted from 1921-1926. Yet after the fire of this initial involvement cooled, they still maintained a deep bond and loving friendship, which would continue for over forty years in spite of his marriage to Henriette.
Reverdy had always been both appalled and intrigued by the wealth and excess that comprised Chanel's social circle. Chanel, however, was a necessary component in his poetic output. She bolstered his confidence, supported his creative ability and further helped assuage his financial instability by secretly buying his manuscripts through his publisher.
Gravesite Details
Flat rectangular red granite tombstone with a metal cross. Name is not immediately visible, and is engraved on the narrow side of the granite plaque.
Family Members
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