National Library News February 1999 Vol. 31, no. 2

From the Rare Book Collection...

Alain Grandbois, 1900-1975.
Poèmes. Hankow [China]: 1934. [32] double leaves.

Among the Canadian writers who had the privilege of knowing Paris between the two wars, one thinks mainly of Morley Callaghan, John Glassco, Marcel Dugas, Simone Routier and Robert de Roquebrune. They published their memoirs, more or less romanticized, describing their meetings with famous French and foreign writers who lived in Paris at that time. One often forgets the writer who was probably the most present, and, at the same time, the least vocal, Alain Grandbois. He was a friend of Paul Morand, Paul Valéry, St-John Perse, Blasco Ibanez, Ernest Hemingway and many more. He would enjoy a morning coffee with Jean Giraudoux before setting off to explore the streets of Montparnasse with Léon-Paul Fargue. Private and modest, Grandbois told his story in bits and pieces especially through the memoirs of such friends as Marcel Dugas.

Alain Grandbois was born into a family of wealthy merchants in Saint-Casimir de Portneuf, Quebec. After eventful and often interrupted studies, he is admitted to the bar, but never practises. In 1925, he leaves Canada to settle in Paris, and apart from a few short visits to his family, does not return to Canada until 1939. Though Paris occupies his attention for a few years, Grandbois is thirsty for escape and travel. It is a time of exoticism and speed, long automobile trips, and the opening of air routes to North Africa and Indochina.

Like his friends Paul Morand and Léon-Paul Fargue, Grandbois roams all over Europe, and makes his way to North Africa, India and the Holy Land. It is difficult to follow his exact footsteps since the notes he scribbles during his trips are either lost on a train to Siberia or forgotten in a Moroccan kasbah. In the winter of 1933, he publishes a biography of Louis Jolliet, Né à Québec, in Paris, then boards a ship for the Far East.

His itinerary takes him through Africa to Ceylon, to Singapore, and, across Indochina and Cambodia, to Shanghai. From Shanghai, he makes his way to Hankow, the largest inland harbour in China. There he meets a French merchant to whom he shows a few poems that he has written during the trip. His host promises to have them printed while Grandbois continues his voyage to Tibet.

Back in Hankow a few months later, a surprised author receives 150 copies of his book. It is an attractive book printed on laid rice paper with card boards covered in blue silk. The frontispiece shows a man lying on a mat smoking opium. In the upper right-hand corner of the cover are five Chinese characters which can be translated as "at the same instant as inspiration surges, the poem is done". Printed August 25, 1934, the book contains seven poems, which were reprinted later in Les Iles de la Nuit (Montréal: Parizeau, 1944) but in a different order, and illustrated by the author’s old friend Alfred Pellan.

Grandbois brings back a dozen copies and puts the rest on a passing junk. The precious cargo disappears in the Sea of China, victim of a storm or pirates. The only known copies were preserved by the author’s friends or family. Only six copies of this work have been located: three in libraries (the National Library of Canada, the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec and the Université de Montréal) and three in private collections.

Fleeing the war, Grandbois returns to Canada in 1939, financially ruined. He publishes a few books of poetry, Les Iles de la Nuit (1944), Rivages de l'Homme (1948) and L'Étoile pourpre (1957), short stories in Avant le chaos (1945) and a biography, Les voyages de Marco Polo (1941). Now bibliographer at the Bibliothèque Saint-Sulpice, he publishes articles in periodicals, presents a long series of radio programs, and speaks at conferences.

Alain Grandbois is one of Canada’s most important poets. His work, which is of great density and depth, has influenced many generations of creators.

It was through the intervention of Dr. Guy Sylvestre, the National Librarian at the time, that the National Library of Canada acquired its precious copy of the Poèmes of Hankow in the 1970s.