Jean Cocteau : The History of a Poet's Age / / Wallace Fowlie.

• Author: Fowlie, Wallace, 1908-1998.
• Place / Publishing House: Bloomington, : Indiana University Press, [1966]; ©[1966]
• Year of Publication: 1966
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (1 online resource 181 pages) :; illustrations, portraits

"Astonish me!" was an early command of one of Jean Cocteau's mentors, Serge de Diaghileff. It was an admonition he apparently never forgot. Poems, paint- ings, plays, films, novels, criticism-he was creator and master of them all. In this volume Wallace Fowlie pre- sents a biographical and a historical-critical study of Cocteau in all his guises, together with background ma- terial on Cocteau's major works. There is also a chapter on the special relationship between Cocteau and Pablo Picasso, their friendship, and the ways in which they in- fluenced each other artistically. But more than a portrait or a critical study, the book achieves what its subtitle implies: it is a study of a poet's age. Cocteau's personal world was inhabited by Apollinaire, Diaghileff, Stravin- sky, Maritain, and Genet, as well as such figures as Mistinguette, the Parisian singer, and a former world champion boxer, Al Brown. Mr. Fowlie's work will be treasured not only by devotees of Jean Cocteau but by all who are fascinated by the turbulent brilliance of Paris during Cocteau's lifetime.

Table of Contents

At the poet's death -- The poet's birth: 1889-1914 -- The poet's trial: 1914-1930 -- The poet's testament: 1930-1963 -- The poet as novelist -- The poet as dramatist -- The poet in his art -- The poet as film maker -- The poet as theorist and chronicler -- Picasso's role in Cocteau's art -- Epilogue: a meeting with Cocteau -- Chronology.