Boris Vian

Boris Vian (French: [bɔʁis vjɑ̃]; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their release owing to their unconventional outlook.

Vian's other fiction, published under his real name, featured a highly individual writing style with numerous made-up words, subtle wordplay and surrealistic plots. His novel Froth on the Daydream (L'Écume des jours) is the best known of these works and one of the many translated into English.

Vian was an important influence on the French jazz scene. He served as liaison for Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis in Paris, wrote for several French jazz-reviews (Le Jazz Hot, Paris Jazz) and published numerous articles dealing with jazz both in the United States and in France. His own music and songs enjoyed popularity during his lifetime, particularly the anti-war song "Le Déserteur" (The Deserter).

Boris Vian was born in 1920 into an upper-middle-class family in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Ville d'Avray. His parents were Paul Vian, a rentier, who lived on income from investments; and Yvonne Ravenez, amateur pianist and harpist. From his father, Vian grew up with a distrust of the church and the military, as well as a love of the bohemian life. Vian was the second of four children: the others were Lélio (1918–1984), Alain (1921–1995) and Ninon (1924–2003). The family occupied Les Fauvettes villa. Yvonne chose his name of Boris after seeing a performance of Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov.

Boris' later childhood was marked with illness as he suffered from rheumatic fever when he was 12. From then on, his parents became overprotective toward him. He later judged them harshly for this in his books L'Herbe rouge and L'Arrache-coeur.

From 1932 to 1937, Vian studied at Lycée Hoche in Versailles. In 1936, he and his two brothers began to organize what they called "surprise-parties" (surprise parties). They partook of mescaline in the form of the Mexican cactus called peyote. These gatherings became the basis of Vian's early novels: Trouble dans les andains (Turmoil in the Swaths) (1943) and particularly Vercoquin et le plancton (Vercoquin and the Plankton) (1943–44). It was also in 1936 that Vian became interested in jazz. The next year, he started playing the trumpet and joined the Hot Club de France.

In 1937, Vian graduated from Lycée Hoche, passing baccalauréats in mathematics, philosophy, Latin, Greek and German. He subsequently enrolled at Lycée Condorcet, Paris, where he studied special mathematics until 1939. Vian became fully immersed in the French jazz scene: for example, in 1939 he helped organize Duke Ellington's second concert in France. When World War II started, Vian was not accepted into the army due to poor health. He entered École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris and subsequently moved to Angoulême when the school moved there because of the war.

In 1940, Vian met Michelle Léglise, whom he married in 1941. She taught Vian English and introduced him to translations of American literature. Also in 1940, Vian met Jacques Loustalot, who became a recurring character in several early novels and short stories as "The Colonel". Loustalot died accidentally in 1949 falling from a building he was trying to climb after a bet, in order to enter into a flat by the window.

In 1942, Vian and his brothers joined a jazz orchestra under the direction of Claude Abadie. Vian later used him as a minor character in his book Vercoquin et le plancton. The same year, Vian graduated from École Centrale with a diploma in metallurgy, and his son Patrick was born.

After Vian's graduation, he and Michelle moved to the 10th arrondissement of Paris. On 24 August 1942, he became an engineer at the French Association for Standardisation (AFNOR). By this time he was already an accomplished jazz trumpeter. In 1943 he wrote his first novel, Trouble dans les andains (Turmoil in the Swaths). His literary career started in 1943 with his first publication, a poem, in the Hot Club de France bulletin. The poem was signed Bison Ravi ("Delighted Bison"), an anagram of Vian's real name. The same year Vian's father died, murdered at home by burglars.

In 1944, Vian completed Vercoquin et le plancton (Vercoquin and the Plankton), a novel inspired partly by surprise-parties of his youth and partly by his job at the AFNOR (which is sharply satirized in the novel). Raymond Queneau and Jean Rostand helped Vian to publish this work at Éditions Gallimard in 1947, along with several works which Vian completed in 1946. These included his first major novels, L'Écume des jours and L'automne à Pékin (Autumn in Peking). The former, a tragic love story in which real world objects respond to the characters' emotions, is now regarded as Vian's masterpiece, but at the time of its publication it failed to attract any considerable attention. L'automne à Pékin, similarly had a love story at its heart but was somewhat more complex, and also failed to sell well.

Frustrated by the commercial failure of his works, Vian vowed he could write a best-seller; he wrote the hard-boiled novel I Spit on Your Graves (J'irai cracher sur vos tombes) in only 15 days. The book was ascribed to a fictitious American writer, Vernon Sullivan, with Vian credited as translator. Vian persuaded his publisher friend Jean d'Halluin to publish the novel in 1947. Eventually the hoax became known and the book became one of the best-selling titles of that year. Vian wrote three more Vernon Sullivan novels from 1947 to 1949.

The year 1946 marked a turning point in Vian's life: At one of the popular parties that he and Michelle hosted he made the acquaintance of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus, and became a regular in their literary circle. He started regularly publishing various pieces in Les Temps modernes.

Vian admired Sartre in particular and gave him a prominent role—as "Jean-Sol Partre"—in L'Écume des jours (litt. "The foam of the days") published in English under the title: Froth on the Daydream. Sartre and Michelle Vian began a relationship that would eventually destroy Vian's marriage.

Vian's daughter, Carole, was born in 1948. He continued his literary career by writing Vernon Sullivan novels, and also published poetry collections: Barnum's Digest (1948) and Cantilènes en gelée (Cantelinas in Jelly, 1949).

Vian started writing plays, the first of which, L'Équarrissage pour tous (Slaughter for Everyone), was staged the year it was written, 1950. The same year he published his third major novel, L'Herbe rouge (The Red Grass). This was a much darker story than its predecessors, centering on a man who built a giant machine that could help him psychoanalyze his soul. Like the previous two books, it did not sell well. Since Vian's financial situation had been steadily worsening since late 1948, he was forced to take up translation of English-language literature and articles in order to get by.

Vian and his wife separated in this period. In 1950 he met Ursula Kübler (1928–2010), a Swiss dancer, and the two started an affair. In 1951 Vian divorced Michelle. He married Ursula in 1954.

Vian's last novel, L'Arrache-cœur (The Heartsnatcher), was published in 1953, but earned only poor sales. Vian effectively stopped writing fiction. The only work that he published after 1953 was a revised version of L'automne à Pékin (1956).

He concentrated on a new field, song-writing and performing, and continued writing poetry. Vian's songs were successful; in 1954 he embarked on his first tour as singer-songwriter. By 1955, when he was working as record producer for Philips, Vian was active in a wide variety of fields: song-writing, opera, screenplays and several more plays. His first album, Chansons possibles et impossibles (Possible and Impossible Songs), was recorded in 1955. He wrote the first French rock and roll songs with his friend Henri Salvador, who sang them under the nickname Henry Cording. He also wrote "Java Pour Petula" (a song about an English girl arriving in France, written in Parisian argot) for Petula Clark's first concert performances in France.

On the morning of 23 June 1959, Vian was at the Cinéma Marbeuf for the screening of the film version of his I will Spit on Your Graves. He had already fought with the producers over their interpretation of his work. He publicly denounced the film, stating that he wished to have his name removed from the credits. A few minutes after the film began, he reportedly blurted out: "These guys are supposed to be American? My ass!" He collapsed onto his seat and died of a sudden cardiac arrest on his way to the hospital.

During his lifetime, only the novels published under the name of Vernon Sullivan were successful. Those published under his real name, which had real literary value in his eyes, remained a commercial failure, despite the support of prominent writers of the time.

Almost immediately after his death, L'Écume des jours, and then L'automne à Pékin, L'Arrache-cœur, and L'Herbe rouge, began to gain recognition in France. They were taken up by the young in the 1960s and 1970s.

As a songwriter, Vian had mixed success. When he decided that he should sing the songs that were rejected by the stars, he reached only a limited audience (including Léo Ferré and Georges Brassens). The public rejected his singing performances. But the May 1968 in France generation, even more than the previous ones, loved his songs, especially because of their impertinence.

As a songwriter, Vian inspired Serge Gainsbourg, who used to attend his show at the cabaret Les Trois Baudets. Thirty years later, Gainsbourg wrote: "I took it on the chin [...], he sang terrific things [...], it is because I heard him that I decided to try something interesting".

As a critic, Boris Vian was the first to support Gainsbourg in Le Canard enchaîné, in 1957.