Carco, Francis 1886–1958
Carco, Francis 1886–1958
(François Marie-Alexandre Carcopino-Tusoli)
PERSONAL: Born July 3, 1886, in Nouméa, New Caledonia; died May 26, 1958. in Paris, France.
CAREER: Novelist, poet, essayist, dramatist, critic. Military service: Served in the French army.
AWARDS, HONORS: Grand Prix, Académie Française, 1924, for L'homme traqué; inductee, 1937, Académie Goncourt.
WRITINGS:
Instincts (short stories), Le Feu (Paris, France), 1911.
Ce petit cahier contient quatre poèmes, lesquels ont été composés par mm, Tarbes (France), 1911.
La bohème et mon coeur (poetry), Imprimerie Clouzot (Niort, France), 1912, revised 2nd edition, Nouvelle Revue Française (Paris, France), 1922, revised 3rd edition, Émile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1929.
Chansons aigres-douces (poetry), Imp. Française, 1913.
Au vent crispé du matin: Poèmes et proses, J.A. Coulanges (Paris, France), 1913.
Charles-Henry Hirsch (biographical novel), E. Sansot (Paris, France), 1914.
Jesus-la-Caille (novel), A. Fayard (Paris, France), 1914, English translation by Lowell Bair published as Frenzy, Berkley (New York, NY), 1960.
Les innocents (novel), La Renaissance du Livre (Paris, France), 1916, English translation published as Depravity, Berkley (New York, NY), 1957.
Les malheurs de Fernande (novel), L'Édition (Paris, France), 1918.
Les mystères de la morgue (novel), Renaissance du Livre (Paris, France), 1918.
Au coins des rues: Contes ornés de dessins (short stories), L'Eventail (Geneva, Switzerland), 1919.
L'équipe (novel), Émile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1919.
La poésie (poetry), E. Sansot (Paris, France), 1919.
Bob et Bobette s'amusent (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1919.
Scènes de la vie de Montmartre (novel), A. Fayard (Paris, France), 1919.
Les veillées du "Lapin agile" (novel), L'Édition Française illustrée (Paris, France), 1919.
M. de Vlaminck, trente et une reproductions de peintures et dessins (art criticism), Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (Paris, France), 1920.
Maman Petitdoigt; souvenirs d'enfance, orné's de bois gravés de Deslignères (art book), R. Davis (Paris, France), 1920.
Petits airs (poetry), R. Davis (Paris, France), 1920.
Les humoristes (novel), P. Ollendorff (Paris, France), 1921.
(With others) Noctambulismes (1897–1898), R. Davis (Paris, France), 1921.
(With André Picard) Mon homme: Pièce en 3 actes (novel), J. Ferenczi (Paris, France), 1921.
(With Chas Labord) L'ami des filles, ou, Chas-Labord (poetry), R. Davis (Paris, France), 1921.
Francis Carco reconté par lui-même, R. Chiberre (Paris, France), 1921.
Rien qu'une femme … (novel), Fayard (Paris, France), 1921, English translation by Ralph Mannheim published as Only a Woman, Berkley (New York, NY), 1955.
Maurice Utrillo (art criticism), Éditions dee la Nouvelle Revue Française (Paris, France), 1921.
L'homme traqué (novel), Fayard (Paris, France), 1922, English translation by Emile Hope published as The Noose of Sin, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 1923, English translation by Alex Jorand published as The Hounded Man, T. Seltzer (New York, NY), 1924.
Panam (novel), Stock (Paris, France), 1922.
Promenades pittoresques à Montmartre (travel), Editions Léo Deiteil (Paris, France), 1922.
Verotchka l'étrangère; ou, Le goût du malheur (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1923.
(Author of preface) Jean Pellerin, Tartine, E. Champion (Paris, France), 1923.
(With others) Quatre poèmes, A. Huart (Paris, France), 1923.
Maurice Utrillo, 26 reproductions de peintures et dessins précédées d'une étude critique par Francis Carco (art criticism), Gallimard (Paris, France), 1924.
Avec les filles, E. Champion (Paris, France), 1924.
Maurice Asselin: Vingt-huit reproductions de peintures et dessins précédées d'une étude critique (art criticism), Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (Paris, France), 1924.
Tableau de l'amour vénal, Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (Paris, France), 1924.
Le nu dans la peinture moderne, 1863–1920 (art criticism), G. Crès (Paris, France), 1924.
Visite à Saint-Lazare (novel), Chez Mme. Lesage (Paris, France), 1925.
(With Édouard Ramond) Histoires de filles et d'affranchis, Les Éditions de France (Paris, France), 1925.
Le couteau (novella), L'Enseigne de la Porte Étroite (Paris, France), 1925.
J'avais un secrétaire (novella), Cité des Livres (Paris, France), 1925.
Les poètes fantaisistes (criticism), Feuilles au Vent (Toulouse, France), 1925.
Perversité (novel), J. Ferenczi et fils (Paris, France), 1925, English translation by Ford Madox Ford published as Perversity, Pascal Covici Publisher (New York, NY), 1928.
Le roman de François Villon (biographical novel), Plon-Nourrit (Paris, France), 1926, English translation by Hamish Miles published as The Romance of Villon, Knopf (New York, NY), 1927.
De Montmartre au Quartier Latin, à voix basse, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1927, English translation by Madeleine Boyd published as The Last Bohemia, from Montmartre to the Quartier Latin, H. Holt (New York, NY), 1928.
La légende et la vie d'Utrillo (art criticism), two volumes, M. Seheur (Paris, France), 1927.
Poèmes retrouvés (1904–1923), Cité des Livres (Paris, France), 1927.
Nuit de Paris (short stories), Le Divan (Paris, France), 1927.
Les vrais de vrai (short stories), Au Sans Pareil (Paris, France), 1928.
Images cachées (art criticism), Aux Editions de La Roseraie (Paris, France), 1928.
Supplément aux Dialogues des courtisanes de Lucien, Éditions de Trianon (Paris, France), 1928.
Notre ami Louis Jou, M.P. Trémois (Paris, France), 1929.
Camplémentaires, E. Hazan (Paris, France), 1929.
Huit jours a Séville (novella), Émile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1929.
Printemps d'Espagne (travel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1929.
La rue (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1930, English translation by Lowell Bair published as Street of the Lost, Berkley (New York, NY), 1960.
La destin de François Villon, Cité des Livres (Paris, France), 1931.
On ferme (short stories), M. Bruker (Paris, France), 1931.
(Author of introduction) Choderlos de Laclos, Les liaisons dangereuses (novel), Cité des Livres (Paris, France), 1931.
Suite espagnole (travel), Les Éditions de la Belle Page (Paris, France), 1931.
Prisons de femmes (nonfiction), Les Éditions de France (Paris, France), 1931.
Paul Bourget (biography), F. Alcan (Paris, France), 1932.
Traduit de l'argot (novel), Les Éditions de France (Paris, France), 1932.
La belle amour (novel), Les Éditions de France (Paris, France), 1932.
Messieurs les vrais de vrai (novel), Les Éditions de France (Paris, France), 1932.
L'ombre (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1933.
Contes dul "Milieu" (fiction), Les Éditions de France (Paris, France), 1933.
Palace Égypte (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1933.
Mes souvenirs sur Katherine Mansfield (criticism), Les annals politiques et littéraires (Paris, France), 1933.
Amitié avec Toulet (letters), Le Divan (Paris, France), 1934.
(With Rachilde) Collection les chefs-d'oeuvre français (novella), G. Mignolet & Storz (Paris, France), 1934.
Mémoires d'une autre vie: Souvenirs d'enfance, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1934, definitive edition, Éditions du Milieu du Monde (Geneva, Switzerland), 1942.
La lumière noire (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1934.
La dernière chance (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1935.
Ténèbres (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1935.
Brumes (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1935.
Pages choisies (short stories), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1935.
Les homes en cage (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1936.
La rose au balcon: Poésies, P. Chabaneix (Paris, France), 1936.
Petit suite sentimentale, Émile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1936.
La route du bagne (short stories), Ferenczi (Paris, France), 1936.
Blümelein 35: Confidences du lieutenant S. de Barrière, officier de renseignements (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1937.
L'homme de minuit (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1938.
Les poètes maudits (criticism), Pour les Bibliophiles du Palais de L'Imprimerie de J.G. Daragnès (Paris, France), 1938.
À voix basse (novel), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1938.
Souvenirs de Montmartre et d'ailleurs, originaux et incompris (memoirs), Les Oeuvres Libres (Paris, France), 1938.
Montmartre à vingt ans, A. Michel (Paris, France) 1938.
À la gloire de … Verlaine (criticism), Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Critique (Paris, France), 1939.
Heures d'Égypte (short stories), E. Aubanel (Avignon, France), 1940.
Bohème d'artiste, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1940.
Nostalgie de Paris, Éditions du Milieu du Monde (Geneva, Switzerland), 1941.
Suprenant procès d'un bourreau (novel), Éditions du Milieu du Monde (Geneva, Switzerland), 1942.
Barraud: Un peintre chez lui (art criticism), Éditions Galerie-beaux-arts (Zurich, Switzerland), 1943.
La danse des morts, comme l'a décrite François Villon, Éditions du Milieu du Monde (Geneva, Switzerland), 1944.
L'ami des peintres: Souvenirs, Éditions du Milieu du Monde (Geneva, Switzerland), 1944.
Les "belles manières" (novel), Éditions du Milieu du Monde (Geneva, Switzerland), 1945.
Vertès (art criticism), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1946.
Les jours et les nuits, Editions Textes Prétextes (Paris, France), 1946.
Mortefontaine (poetry), Émile-Paul Frères (Paris, France), 1946.
Ombres vivantes, Éditions de la Galerie Charpentier (Paris, France), 1947.
Poèmes en prose, Points et Contrepoints (Paris, France), 1948.
Morsure (novel), Ferenczi (Paris, France), 1949.
Romance de Paris, Sociéte des Francs-Bibliophiles (Paris, France), 1949.
Gérard de Nerval (criticism), A. Michel (Paris, France), 1953.
Compagnons de la mauvais chance (novel), Éditions du Milieu du Monde (Paris, France), 1954.
La belle époque au temps de Bruant, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1954.
Colette, mon ami (biography), Éditions Rive-Gauche (Paris, France), 1955.
Poésies complètes, NRF (Paris, France), 1955.
Utrillo, édité avec dix planches hors-texte, B Grasset (Paris, France), 1956.
Rendez-vous avec moi-même, A. Michel (Paris, France), 1957.
(Editor) Marthe Estibotte, Sur la butte: Poèmes et chansons, La Nef de Paris (Paris, France), 1960.
Carco's works have been translated into English, German, Dutch, Czech, Japanese, and Norwegian, and other languages.
ADAPTATIONS: Several of Carco's novels and short stories were adapted for films.
SIDELIGHTS: Francis Carco was the pseudonym of French writer François Marie-Alexander Carcopino-Tusoli, the son of Corsican parents. When Carco was ten, his civil-servant father moved the family to the south of France. Against his parents' wishes, Carco decided on a literary career, and by 1910, he had settled in Paris, in the artists' quarter of Montmartre. He became part of a group of artists, including Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Maurice Utrillo. Carco's first volume of poetry, La bohème et mon coeur, appeared in 1912. These verses were written in short lines with a fine sense for rhythm and depict, in part, the striving of an artist to find his real self. Carco was soon exploring another facet of bohemian life in Montmartre before the First World War, the demimonde: the artists, prostitutes, pimps, criminals, drug addicts, and street people of the area. His first novel, Jesus-la-Caille, published in installments in the magazine Le Mercure de France in 1914, and soon thereafter in book form, depicted the life of a homosexual procurer and became a scandalous bestseller in France.
This book appeared at about the same time Carco began an affair with the British writer, Katherine Mansfield, whom he later portrayed as the character Winnie in his novel, Les innocents. Jesus-la-Caille was the first of numerous works which not only explored the lives of marginal people, but also defended them. Others in a similar vein include Les innocents, Bob et Bobette s'amusent, Panam, Perversité, and L'homme traqué, the last of which won the 1924 grand prize of the French Academy, and established Carco as a major French writer.
A dominant theme for Carco is the inability of humans to escape their fate and their inevitable moral collapse. Carco devoted more than thirty novels to an exploration of this theme. He also continued to write poetry throughout his life, as well as travel books, personal reminiscences, and both literary and art criticism. In addition to books on Maurice Utrillo and François Villon, Carco also re-lived the world of his Parisian youth in such memoirs as De Montmartre au Quartier Latin, À voix basse and Bohème d'artiste. Carco also wrote travel books on Egypt and Spain. During World War II, he was exiled in Switzerland, returning to Paris after the end of hostilities. His final decade was marked by ill health, suffering from Parkinson's disease, yet he continued to produce both fiction and nonfiction up to his death in 1958. He is best remembered for his novels set in Montmartre and environs, and his reminiscences, which portray Butte Montmartre in its final flowering, before it became a tourist destination. He romanticized not only the dark and winding streets of the district, but also the prostitutes and street toughs who populated it.
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
BOOKS
Bedu, Jean-Jacques, Francis Carco au Coeur de la bohème, Éditions du Rocher (Paris, France), 2001.
Carco, Francis, Mémoires d'une autre vie, Éditions du Milieu du Monde (Geneva, Switzerland), 1942.
Chabaneix, Phillippe, Francis Carco, P. Seghers (Paris, France), 1949.
Clayton, Jay, and Eric Rothstein, editors, Influence and Intertextuality in Literary History, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 1991, pp. 318-337.
Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, Ungar Publishing (New York, NY), 1983, pp. 203-204.
Robinson, Roger, editor, Katherine Mansfield: In from the Margin, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1994, pp. 137-157.
Smith, Horatio, Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1947, pp. 142-143.
PERIODICALS
Nouvelle Revue des Deux Mondes, July, 1968, "Francis Carco," pp. 344-351.
Revue de Litterature Comparée, April-June, 1971, Russell S. King, "Francis Carco's Les innocents and Katherine Mansfield's Je ne parle pas Français," pp. 427-441.
ONLINE
Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/ (April 10, 2006), "Francis Carco."
Terres d'écrivains, http://www.terresdecrivains.com/ (August 14, 2003), "Francis Carco."