Pierre Lou˙s - biography, career, poetry

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Pierre Lou˙s (December 10, 1870 - June 6, 1925) was a French poet and Romantic writer, most renowned for lesbian and classical themes in some of his writings. He is known as a writer who "expressed pagan sensuality with stylistic perfection."

Pierre Lou˙s was born Pierre Louis on December 10, 1870 in Ghent, Belgium, but moved to France where he would spend the rest of his life. He studied at the Ecole Alsacienne in Paris, and there he developed a close friendship with a future Nobel Prize winner and champion of homosexual rights, André Gide. In the 1890s, he became a friend of the noted English dramatist and homosexual, Oscar Wilde. Although heterosexual, Lou˙s enjoyed entree into homosexual circles.

Lou˙s started writing his first erotic texts at the age of 18, at which point he developed an interest in the Parnassian and Symbolist schools of writing.

In 1891, Lou˙s helped found a literary review, La Conque, where he proceeded to publish Astarte - an early collection of erotic verse already marked by his distinctive elegance and refinement of style. He followed up in 1894 with another erotic collection in 143 prose poems - Songs of Bilitis (Les Chansons de Bilitis), this time with strong lesbian themes. It was divided into three sections, each representative of a phase of Bilitis’ life: Bucolics in Pamphylia, Elegies at Mytilene, and Epigrams in the Isle of Cyprus; dedicated to her were also a short Life of Bilitis and three epitaphs in The Tomb of Bilitis. What made The Songs sensational is Lou˙s’ claim that the poems were the work of an ancient Greek courtesan and contemporary of Sappho, Bilitis; to himself, Lou˙s ascribed the modest role of translator. The pretense did not last very long, and "translator" Lou˙s was soon unmasked as Bilitis herself. This did little to tarnish The Songs of Bilitis, however, as it was praised as a fount of elegant sensuality and refined style, even more extraordinary for the author’s compassionate portrayal of lesbian (and female in general) sexuality. Some of the poems were tailored as songs for voice and piano, and, in 1897, Lou˙s’ close friend Claude Debussy composed a musical adaptation. In 1955, one of the first lesbian organizations in America called itself Daughters of Bilitis, and to this day Lou˙s’ Songs continues to be an important work for lesbians.

In 1896, Lou˙s published his first novel, Aphrodite - Ancient Manners (Aphrodite (mśurs antiques)), a depiction of courtesan life in Alexandria. It is considered a mixture of both literary excess and refinement, and, numbering at 350,000 copies, was the best selling work by any living French author in his day.

Lou˙s went on to publish Les Aventures du roi Pausole (The Adventures of King Pausole) in 1901, Pervigilium Mortis in 1916, both of them libertine compositions, and Manuel de civilité (Manual of Etiquette) in 1917 (published posthumously and anonymously in 1927), a parody whose obscenity is almost unparalleled even in the long history of French clandestine publishing.

Even while on his deathbed, Pierre Lou˙s continued to write delicately obscene verses.

List of works

1891: Astarte
1894: Les chansons de Bilitis ("The songs of Bilitis")
1929: edition including suppressed poems
1930: Véritables chansons de Bilitis ("Real songs of Bilitis", probably not by Pierre Lou˙s)
1896: Aphrodite: mśurs antiques ("Aphrodite: ancient manners")
1928: edition including suppressed passages
1898: La femme et le pantin ("Woman and puppet")
1901: Les aventures du roi Pausole ("The adventures of King Pausole")
1903: Sanguines
1906: Archipel ("Archipelago")
1916: Pervigilium mortis ("Death watch")
1925: Le crépuscule des nymphes ("The twilight of the nymphs")
1925: Quatorze images ("Fourteen images")
1926: Manuel de civilité pour les petites filles, ŕ l’usage des maisons d’éducation ("Handbook of behaviour for little girls, to be used in educational establishments")
1926: Trois Filles de Leur Mére ("Their mother’s three daughters")
1927: Psyché
1927: Pages (selected texts)
1927: Douze douzains de dialogues ("Twelve dozen dialogues")
1927: Histoire du roi Gonzalve et des douze princesses ("Story of king Gonzalve and the twelve princesses")
1927: Poésies érotiques ("Erotic poems")
1927: Pybrac
1927: Trente-deux quatrains ("Thirty-two quatrains")
1933: Au temps des Juges: chants bibliques ("In the time of the Judges: Biblical songs")
1933: Contes choisis (selected stories)
1938: La femme ("Woman")
1945: Stances et derniers vers ("Stanzas and last verses")
1948: Le trophée de vulves légendaires ("The trophy of legendary vulvas")
1949: Cydalise
1988: L’île aux dames ("The island of women")




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