Jacques Bens
Jacques Bens was a French writer and poet.
Biography
Born of teacher-parents at Cadolive, Jacques Bens spent his childhood and his youth in Marseilles, where his studies in zoology were interrupted in 1951 for health reasons. He became the son-in-law of Célestin Freinet, collaborated with the Freinet Modern School Movement and worked at the Coopérative de l'enseignement secaire.Jacques Bens worked from 1960 to 1963 under the direction of Raymond Queneau at the Encyclopédie de la Pléiade. Dataire of the College of 'Pataphysics; Bens was a co-founder member of the Oulipo, participated on 24 November 1960 with Claude Berge, François Le Lionnais, Jean Lescure, Raymond Queneau and Jean Queval at the first meeting of which he was definitively appointed provisional secretary.
In 1963, Jacques Bens returned to the Alpes-Maritimes, where he was responsible for various publishing works and then relations with the press of the Théâtre de Nice. In 1975 he returned to Paris and took part in Jacques Duchateau's Panorama of France Culture and other programmes such as .
Between 1980 and 1991, he was general secretary of the Société des gens de lettres and held the crossword heading of L'Express and Lire.
Works
Jacques Bens himself collected his books under different sections: « prose rimée », « prose romanesque », « prose méditative », « prose didactique », « prose dramatique » and « prose secrétariale ». He is also the author of the introduction of the collection of the pedagogical works of his famous father-in-law, Célestin Freinet.;« Prose rimée »
- 1958: Chanson vécue, collection Métamorphoses, Éditions Gallimard, 104 p.
- 1962: 41 sonnets irrationnels, Gallimard
- 1966: Le Retour au pays, Gallimard
- 1967: Métagrammes
- 1968: Petites prophéties populaires
- 1978: Onzains incertains, texte autographié,, Paris, 25 p.
- 2004: De l'Oulipo et de la Chandelle verte, complete poetry, preface by Jacques Roubaud, edition by François Caradec, Gallimard,
- 1958: Valentin, Gallimard
- 1959: La Plume et l'ange, Gallimard
- 1962: Sept jours de liberté, short stories, Gallimard
- 1962: La Trinité, Gallimard
- 1969: Adieu Sidonie, Gallimard
- 1976: Rouge grenade, Éditions Grasset,
- 1979: Rendez-vous chez François, Bibliothèque oulipienne
- 1979: Le Pain perdu, with twenty etchings of Proscynska, by the artist
- 1983: Cinq châteaux de cartes, series " Arc-en-Poche", Nathan,
- 1986: Gaspard de Besse, Ramsay,
- 1988: Nouvelles des enchanteurs, Ramsay,
- 1990: Nouvelles désenchantées, Seghers,, 224 p.
- 1994: Les Dames d'onze heures, Éditions Julliard, 168 p.
- 1997:La Belle Étoile, Atelier du Gué
- 1998:Lente sortie de l'ombre, Stock
- 1975: Pense-bête
- 1989: La Cinquantaine à Saint-Quentin, Seghers
- 1997: Quarante-neuf questions pour essayer de comprendre le monde, Les Guère Épais, Plurielle
- 2000: 12 maximes fin de siècle, Atelier-Musée Livre & Typographie
- 1962: Queneau, Bibliothèque idéale, Gallimard
- 1967: Guide des jeux d'esprit, Albin Michel
- 1976: Boris Vian, Présence littéraire, Bordas
- 1979: La Semence d'Horus , Garnier Frères,
- 1992: Ginkgo biloba, l'arbre aux quarante écus, SEMAPA
- 1994: Marcel Pagnol, Écrivains de toujours, Éditions du Seuil
- 1973: Les Frelons, after Aristophanes, Comédy by Saint-Étienne
- 1986: Les Vaudois, France Culture
- 1987: Geoffroy Tête noire à Ventadour, Festival de la Luzège
- 1989: Une si jolie maison dans le soleil levant, Radio France
- 1989: La Guerre aux étangs, Festival de la Luzège
- 1980: Oulipo, 1960-1963, Christian Bourgois ; L'Oulipo, genesis of the Oulipo, 1960-1963, revised and expanded edition, presented by Jacques Duchateau,, 2005
- 1998: La cuisine en jeux,
- 1999: Mots croisés I and II, Zulma
- Jacques Bens, textes inédits , in Cahiers Raymond Queneau, Association des amis de Valentin Brû, éditions Calliopées, Clamart, 2011,