André Salmon

André Salmon was born in Paris, in the XI arrondissement, the fourth child of Émile-Frédéric Salmon, a sculptor and etcher, and Sophie-Julie Cattiaux, daughter of a founder of the Radical Socialist Party.[1] Often assumed to come from a Jewish family,[2] they were in fact secular Republicans, frequently in financial difficulty, and moved several times.[1] André Salmon claimed in a letter to the editor of Le Crapouillot, now in a private collection, that his family descended from the Renaissance poet Jean Salmon Macrin, whose position in the court of Francis I may have indicated that his forebears were not Jewish. However, there were Jews in France at this time.[3]

Salmon's education was neglected, although he received some tuition from the Parnassian poet Gaston de Raisme, a friend of François Coppée. From 1897 to 1902 he stayed in St-Petersburg, first with his parents and then as an assistant in the chancellery of the French consulate.[1]

In 1902 Salmon returned to France for military service but was dismissed after a few months due to his weak physical condition. In the first decade of the 20th century, he mixed with literary circles of Paris' Latin Quarter. Then he met a young, then unknown poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and with a group of young artists, they formed an artistic group. In 1904 he moved into the Bateau-Lavoir and lived there with Picasso, Max Jacob, and Apollinaire. He lived a Bohemian life for several years until he fell in love with Jeanne Blazy-Escarpette. He found work as a journalist with L'Intransigeant and also contributed to Le Soleil. He married Jeanne on 13 July 1909 and settled with her on rue Rousselet in the 7th arrondissement of Paris.[1]

Portrait of Salmon by Josette Bournet, c.1947

During World War I (1914–18) Salmon enlisted in the army as a volunteer and served in the trenches. He was invalided in 1916 and returned to Paris where he became a factotum on the journal L'Éveil of Jacques Dhur.[1] Salmon organized the exhibition L'Art Moderne en France from 16–31 July 1916 for the wealthy fashion designer Paul Poiret.[4] Salmon gave "26 Avenue d'Antin" as the address and called the exhibition the "Salon d'Antin". Artists included Pablo Picasso, who showed Les Demoiselles d'Avignon for the first time, Amedeo Modigliani, Moïse Kisling, Manuel Ortiz de Zárate and Marie Vassilieff.[5] Another of Poiret's exhibitions, also organized by Salmon, was La Collection particulière de M. Paul Poiret, from 26 April to 12 May 1923.[4]

In the following years, Salmon continued to work as a journalist for works such as L'Europe nouvelle and La Paix sociale, while publishing poems, short stories, critiques, and essays. From 1928 Salmon worked for Le Petit Parisien as a court reporter. In the 1930s he ran into financial difficulties, while his wife became increasingly dependent on opium and he was forced publish in such lesser periodicals as Paris Sex-Appeal.[6] Salmon was sent to Spain by the Petit Parisien to report on the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) from the Francoist side. His reports, deeply critical of the Fascists, were censored by the paper.

During World War II (1939–45) he was sent to Beirut as a war correspondent. After the fall of France, he made his way back via Marseille to Paris, where he found his wife struggling to survive. He rejoined Le Petit Parisien, but avoided any controversial subjects, and was forced to defend himself against attacks from the far-Right who accused him of being a Jew and a supporter of "degenerate art".[1]

After the Liberation of France Salmon was sentenced to five years of "national indignity" for his work as a journalist in occupied France and had to publish under a pseudonym.

His wife died on 1 January 1949. On 29 October 1953, he remarried. In November 1961 he moved from Paris to Sanary, where he had built a small house in 1937. In 1964 Salmon was awarded the Grand Prix for poetry by the French Academy.

He died on 12 March 1969 at his home in Provence.[1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to André Salmon.

• Works by or about André Salmon at Internet Archive