André Spire
Encyclopedia
André Spire was a French
poet, writer, and Zionist activist.
broke when a Jewish military officer was wrongly accused of treason, revealing how widespread antisemetism was at the time in France. Spire provoked a duel with a columnist from the Libre Parole (a nationalist and antisemitic newspaper run by Edouard Drumont
) for alleging that the Jews appointed to the Conseil d'Etat won their positions not on merit but through illicit influence. Spire was wounded in the arm.
In 1896, he and a Catholic colleague founded the Société des Visiteurs, dedicated to helping workers suffering from unemployment, illness, or injury. Shortly thereafter, he took part in the Cooperation des Idées, where he met Daniel Halévy
. The two men founded an Université populaire.
Spire left the Conseil d'Etat for the ministry of Labor, then joined the staff of Jean Dupuy
, Minister of Agriculture in the government of Waldeck-Rousseau. He became friends with Charles Péguy
who published his Et vous riez ! in Les Cahiers de la quinzaine (1905), poems which reflect a certain disappointment with the worker's movement.
In 1902, he was commissioned by the Office du Travail (Labor Office) to conduct an inquiry into the labor conditions of English workers and discovered the East European Jewish immigrant neighbourhood of Whitechapel in the East End of London. In 1904, he was deeply moved by a short story by Israel Zangwill
in the Cahiers de la quinzaine entitled Chad Gadya. It relates the tale of a young Venetian Jew from a traditional family attracted by the external non-Jewish world. Not able to find his place in either world he ends by committing suicide.
Spire engaged in the zionist cause, joining Zangwill's Jewish Territorial Organisation (ITO) and campaigned, publishing numerous articles.
During the First World War, Spire, not mobilisable, ran the family factory. He was also charged by the Ministry of Agriculture with work on the reconstruction of war-damaged regions. In 1920, Dr. Chaim Weizmann invites Spire to accompany him to Palestine.
Following the defeat of France in 1940, Spire was forced to exile himself to the United States of America where he was invited to teach French Literature at the New School for Social Research and the École libre des Hautes études in New York. Very active, Spire also participated in numerous conferences and completed his classic study of poetics Plaisir poétique et plaisir musculaire, essai sur l'évolution des techniques poétiques (José Corti 1949 ; new edition 1986).
After the war he returned to France. Spire died in Paris at the age of 98.His funeral was led by rabbi David Feuerwerker
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
poet, writer, and Zionist activist.
Biography
Born in 1868 in Nancy to a Jewish family of the middle bourgeoisie, long established in the Lorraine, Spire studied literature, then law. He attended the École libre des sciences politiques, now called the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Institut d'études politiques), or Sciences-Po, and later, in 1894, was appointed to the Conseil d'État on successfully passing the competitive entrance examination. A few months later, the Dreyfus AffairDreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
broke when a Jewish military officer was wrongly accused of treason, revealing how widespread antisemetism was at the time in France. Spire provoked a duel with a columnist from the Libre Parole (a nationalist and antisemitic newspaper run by Edouard Drumont
Edouard Drumont
Édouard Adolphe Drumont was a French journalist and writer. He founded the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the newspaper La Libre Parole.- Early life :...
) for alleging that the Jews appointed to the Conseil d'Etat won their positions not on merit but through illicit influence. Spire was wounded in the arm.
In 1896, he and a Catholic colleague founded the Société des Visiteurs, dedicated to helping workers suffering from unemployment, illness, or injury. Shortly thereafter, he took part in the Cooperation des Idées, where he met Daniel Halévy
Daniel Halévy
Daniel Halévy was a French historian.The son of Ludovic Halévy, Daniel was born and died in Paris...
. The two men founded an Université populaire.
Spire left the Conseil d'Etat for the ministry of Labor, then joined the staff of Jean Dupuy
Jean Dupuy
Jean Dupuy is a French-born artist. He is a pioneer of work combining art and technology. He works in the fields of conceptual art, performance art, painting, installations, sculptures and video art. In the 1970s he curated many performance art events involving different artists from Fluxus, the...
, Minister of Agriculture in the government of Waldeck-Rousseau. He became friends with Charles Péguy
Charles Péguy
Charles Péguy was a noted French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism, but by 1908 at the latest, after years of uneasy agnosticism, he had become a devout but non-practicing Roman Catholic.From that time, Catholicism strongly influenced his...
who published his Et vous riez ! in Les Cahiers de la quinzaine (1905), poems which reflect a certain disappointment with the worker's movement.
In 1902, he was commissioned by the Office du Travail (Labor Office) to conduct an inquiry into the labor conditions of English workers and discovered the East European Jewish immigrant neighbourhood of Whitechapel in the East End of London. In 1904, he was deeply moved by a short story by Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill was a British humorist and writer.-Biography:Zangwill was born in London on January 21, 1864 in a family of Jewish immigrants from Czarist Russia, to Moses Zangwill from what is now Latvia and Ellen Hannah Marks Zangwill from what is now Poland. He dedicated his life to championing...
in the Cahiers de la quinzaine entitled Chad Gadya. It relates the tale of a young Venetian Jew from a traditional family attracted by the external non-Jewish world. Not able to find his place in either world he ends by committing suicide.
Spire engaged in the zionist cause, joining Zangwill's Jewish Territorial Organisation (ITO) and campaigned, publishing numerous articles.
During the First World War, Spire, not mobilisable, ran the family factory. He was also charged by the Ministry of Agriculture with work on the reconstruction of war-damaged regions. In 1920, Dr. Chaim Weizmann invites Spire to accompany him to Palestine.
Following the defeat of France in 1940, Spire was forced to exile himself to the United States of America where he was invited to teach French Literature at the New School for Social Research and the École libre des Hautes études in New York. Very active, Spire also participated in numerous conferences and completed his classic study of poetics Plaisir poétique et plaisir musculaire, essai sur l'évolution des techniques poétiques (José Corti 1949 ; new edition 1986).
After the war he returned to France. Spire died in Paris at the age of 98.His funeral was led by rabbi David Feuerwerker
David Feuerwerker
- Born in Geneva :He was born on October 2, 1912, at 11 Rue du Mont-Blanc, in Geneva, Switzerland. He was the seventh of eleven children. His father Jacob Feuerwerker was born in Sighet, now Sighetu Marmatiei, Maramureş, then Hungary, now Rumania...
.
Poetry
- La Cité présente, Ollendorf, 1903
- Et vous riez !, Cahiers de la quinzaine, 1905
- Versets (Et vous riez - Poèmes juifs), Mercure de France, 1909
- J'ai trois robes distinguées, Moulins, Cahiers du Centre, 1910
- Vers les routes absurdes, Mercure de France, 1911
- Et j'ai voulu la paix !, Londres, The Egoist, 1916
- Poèmes juifs, Genève, Kundig, 1919
- Samaël, poème dramatique, Crès, 1921
- Poèmes de Loire, Grasset, 1929
- Instants, Bruxelles, Cahiers du Journal des Poètes, 1936
- Poèmes d'ici et de là-bas, New York, The Dryden Press, 1944
- Poèmes d'hier et d'aujourd'hui, José Corti, 1953
- Poèmes juifs, Albin Michel, 1959 ; rééd. 1978
Prose
- Israel Zangwill, Cahiers de la Quinzaine, 1909
- Quelques Juifs, Mercure de France, 1913
- Les Juifs et la guerre, Payot, 1917
- Le Sionisme, 1918
- Le Secret, Nouvelle Revue Française, 1919
- Fournisseurs, Éditions du Monde Nouveau, 1923
- Henri Franck, lettres à quelques amis, Grasset, 1925
- Refuges, avec neuf bois gravés de Maurice Savin, Éditions de la Belle Page, 1926
- Quelques Juifs et demi-Juifs,2 t., Grasset, 1928
- Plaisir poétique et plaisir musculaire, Vanni-José Corti, 1949 ; rééd. José Corti 1986
- Souvenirs à bâtons rompus, Albin Michel, 1962