David Gascoyne

David Gascoyne Collected Journals 1936-42 are published by Skoob Books, and a collection of his verse translations will appear this year from Enitharmon. He is soon to be made a Chevalier de l’Ordre National des Arts et Lettres.

Diary: Notebook, New Year 1991

David Gascoyne, 25 January 1996

Saturday, 29 December 1990: Caught Red Funnel Ferryboat 10 a.m. Taxi Southampton Dock to Eastleigh – Air France plane departed 12.45. Met at Roissy (3 p.m. approx. Continental time) by Jean-Claude Masson and Annick, who drove us in their car to the Grand Hotel Français, boulevard Voltaire, XIIème – a quarter little known to me. Windy, showery, as at home; mild. Pleasant enough double room on the fifth floor – very slow lift. Feeble lighting as usual. After settling in, crossed the boulevard to local café-tabac l’ Aquarium, for tea and tartines. Dinner at eight chez Jean-Claude, round the corner in rue de Picpus, an immeuble with a sinister labyrinthine underground car-park.

Writing the Night

Hugh Haughton, 25 January 1996

In the Thirties and early Forties the English poet David Gascoyne was much enamoured of the Continental, Late Romantic image of writing and of the writer as a visionary misfit. By the end of the...

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