Pierre Klossowski
Pierre Klossowski (9 August 1905, Paris – 12 August 2001, Paris) was a novelist, visual artist, translator, philosopher, critic, and actor. He was born in Paris to parents of noble Polish origin; his younger brother, the painter Balthus, arrived three years later. Rainer Maria Rilke, his mother's lover, introduced the young Klossowski to André Gide, for whom he worked as a secre tary during the period of the composition of The Counterfeiters. Klossowski translated Holderlin in collaboration with the author Pierre Jean Jouve, joined Georges Bataille in both the review and secret society Acéphale, and flirted with entering a monastery during the years of World War II--an experience recounted and satirized in his first novel, The Suspended Vocation. In 1947, Klossowski married the Resistance member Marie-Roberte Morin-Sinclaire, who, lightly fictionalized, became the central figure in his trilogy of erotic-philosophical novels known under the collective title The Laws of Hospitality'.
Klossowski appeared in Robert Bresson's film Au hasard Balthazar, collaborated with the Chilean expatriate Raúl Ruiz on two films for television--including an adaptation of The Suspended Vocation--and starred as his own character Octave in Pierre Zucca's film Roberte, which adapts scenes from the Laws of Hospitality novels.
Klossowski died at the age of ninety-six. (Source)
Works
Books
- Sade mon prochain, Paris: Seuil, 1947; new ed., preceded by Le Philosophe scélérat, Paris: Seuil, 1967.
- Das Denken des Marquis de Sade, Frankfurt: Fischer, 1988. (German)
- Sade My Neighbor, trans. & intro. Alphonso Lingis, Northwestern University Press, 1991, 144 pp. (English)
- Sade prossimo mio, SE, 2017, 144 pp. (Italian)
- La Vocation suspendue, Paris: Gallimard, 1950. Novel. Excerpt.
- La vocacion suspendida, trans. Michele Alban and Juan Garcia Ponce, Mexico: Era, 1975. (Spanish)
- The Suspended Vocation, trans. Jeremy M. Davies and Anna Fitzgerald, intro. Brian Evenson, Small Press, 2020, 75 pp. (English)
- Roberte, ce soir, Paris: Minuit, 1953; new ed. in Klossowski, Les Lois de l'hospitalité, Paris: Gallimard, 1965.
- "Roberte ce soir", in Klossowski, Roberte ce soir and The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, trans. Austryn Wainhouse, Dalkey Archive Press, 2002. (English)
- Le Bain de Diane, Paris: Pauvert, 1956.
- Das Bad der Diana, trans. Sigrid von Massenbach, Berlin: Brinkmann & Bose, 1982. (German)
- "Diana at Her Bath", in Klossowski, Diana at Her Bath / The Women of Rome, trans. Sophie Hawkes and Stephen Sartarelli, New York: Marsilio, 1998, 138 pp. (English)
- La Révocation de l'Édit de Nantes, Paris: Minuit, 1959; new ed. in Klossowski, Les Lois de l'hospitalité, Paris: Gallimard, 1965.
- "The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes", in Klossowski, Roberte ce soir and The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, trans. Austryn Wainhouse, Dalkey Archive Press, 2002. (English)
- Le Souffleur ou Un théâtre de société, Paris: Pauvert, 1960; new ed. in Klossowski, Les Lois de l'hospitalité, Paris: Gallimard, 1965.
- Un si funeste désir, Paris: Gallimard, 1963. Collection of essays.
- Such a Deathly Desire, trans. Russell Ford, State University of New York Press, 2007. (English)
- Les Lois de l'hospitalité, Paris: Gallimard, 1965. Contains augmented versions of trilogy of the 'Roberte' novels: La Révocation de l'Édit de Nantes; Roberte, ce soir; and Le Souffleur.
- Le Baphomet, Paris: Mercure de France, 1965.
- The Baphomet, trans. Sophie Hawkes and Stephen Sartarelli, forew. Michel Foucault, Hygiene, CO: Eridanos Press, 1988. (English)
- Origines cultuelles et mythiques d'un certain comportement des Dames Romaines, Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1968; new ed., 2010.
- "The Women of Rome", in Klossowski, Diana at Her Bath / The Women of Rome, trans. Sophie Hawkes and Stephen Sartarelli, New York: Marsilio, 1998, 138 pp. (English)
- Nietzsche et le cercle vicieux, Paris: Mercure de France, 1969; rev.ed., 1978, 367 pp.
- Nietzsche e il circolo vizioso, trans. Enzo Turolla, Milan: Adelphi, 1981. (Italian)
- Nietzsche und der Circulus vitiosus deus, Berlin: Matthes und Seitz, 1986. (German)
- Nietzsche y el circulo vicioso, trans. Roxana Páez, 1995. (Spanish)
- Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle, trans. Daniel W. Smith, University of Chicago Press, 1997, 282 pp. (English)
- La monnaie vivante, Paris: Joëlle Losfield, 1970; repr., 1994, 79 pp; new ed., Paris: Gallimard, 2003. With photographs by Pierre Zucca.
- Lebendes Geld, Bremen: Impuls, 1982. (German)
- La moneda viviente, trans. Axel Gasquet, Cordoba, Argentina: Alcion, 1998, 61 pp. (Spanish)
- Living Currency, trans. Jordan Levinson, self-published, 2012, 32 pp. (English)
- Living Currency, followed by Sade and Fourier, eds. Vernon W. Cisney, Nicolae Morar, and Daniel W. Smith, trans. Paul Foss-Heimlich, et al., Bloomsbury, 2017. (English)
- Les derniers travaux de Gulliver, suivi de Sade et Fourier, Montpellier, Fata morgana, 1974.
- La Ressemblance, Marseille: Dimanche, 1984. Collection of articles followed by an interview with Alain Arnaud..
- Le Mage du Nord, Montpellier: Fata Morgana, 1988. Essay on Hamann and translations of Lettres de J. G. Hamann and Golgotha et Scheblimini.
- L'adolescent immortel, Paris: Gallimard, 2001.
- The Immortal Adolescent, trans. Catherine Petit and Paul Buck, London: Vauxhall&Company, 2014. (English)
Selected essays
- "Anthologie des écrits de Pierre Klossowski sur l'art", in Pierre Klossowski, Paris: Fondation nationale des arts graphiques et plastiques, 1990, 162-199. Section in exhibition catalogue.
- Écrits d'un monomane: essais 1933-1939, Paris: Gallimard, 2001.
- Tableaux vivants: essais critiques, 1936-1983, Paris: Gallimard, 2001.
Book chapters, papers, statements
- "Lettre sur Walter Benjamin", Mercure de France 315, 1952, pp 456-457; repr. in Klossowski, Tableaux vivants: essais critiques, 1936-1983, Paris: Gallimard, 2001.
- "Letter on Walter Benjamin", trans. Christian Hite, Parrhesia 19, 2014, pp 14-21. (English)
Literature
- Sarah Wilson, "Pierre Klossowski: Epiphanies and secrets", n.d. (English)
- Initiales 9: "PK (Pierre Klossowski)", ed. Jérôme Mauche, Lyon: École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Apr 2017, 128 pp. [1] (French)