Saint-John Perse

Works of French poet and diplomat Alexis Saint-Léger Léger under pen name of Saint-John Perse include

Anabase

(1924) and

Chronique

(1960); he won the Nobel Prize of 1960 for literature.

From an old Bourguignon family, which settled in the Antilles in the 17th century and returned at the end of the 19th century, he came.

Perse studied law at Bordeaux and, after private studies in political science, went into the service in 1914. A brilliant career ensued. He served first in the embassy at Peking. People published his work chiefly under the pseudonyms. After various reflections on the impressions of his childhood, he wrote in China. An epic puzzled many critics and gave rise to the suggestion that an Asian ably understands it better than by a westerner.

He later in the foreign office held top positions under Aristide Briand as its administrative head.

He left for the United States in 1940, and the regime at Vichy deprived him of his citizenship and possessions. From 1941 to 1945, he served as adviser to the Library of Congress. After the war, he resumed not his career and in 1950 retired officially with the title of ambassador. He made the United States his permanent residence.

After he settled in the United States, he wrote much of his work.

Exil

(Exile) (1942) fully masters man, merge, imagery, and diction.

*

Poème l'Etrangère

(Poem to a Foreign Lady), 1943;

* Pluies (Rains) (1943);

*

Neiges

(Snows) (1944);

*

Vents

(Winds) (1946) of war and peace blow well within and outside man;

* In

Amers

(Seamarks) (1957), the sea redounds as an image of the timelessness of man.

His abstract epic followed.

People awarded him "for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time."