Letters to Gisèle

“[These letters and poems] form a tragic love story of the twentieth century as well as a unique biography of Celan himself…. A kind of Rosetta Stone, invaluable for comprehending his elusive verse.” —John Felstiner“Paul Celan’s letters to Gisèle Celan-Lestrange [are] by far the most extensive and revealing part of his correspondence as a whole.”—Charlie Louth, The Times Literary Supplement“Letters to Gisèle presents an opportunity for anglophone readers to glimpse Celan’s personal tribulations within the context of his poetic calling as they played out in his relation to his wife, the artist Gisèle Celan-Lestrange, and their son, Eric.” —Rain Taxi “The letters, which span almost twenty years, illuminate Celan’s twin reckonings: poetry and parenthood after the Shoah—two refusals of erasure, two impossible reaches toward continuity across rupture.” —Benjamin Balint, Jewish Review of Books

Paul Celan (1920-1970) was born in Romania to German-speaking Jewish parents. During World War II, his parents were deported to and eventually died in a Nazi concentration camp, and Celan himself was interned for eighteen months. Celan settled in Paris after the war, where he worked as a poet and translator, translating a wide range of works, including poetry by Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Charles Baudelaire. Celan received the 1958 Bremen Prize for German Literature and the 1960 Georg Buchner Prize, and he taught German language and literature at the cole Normale Superieure until his death in 1970.

Jason Kavett received his PhD in German from Yale University. He lives and works in Paris.

Bertrand Badiou is the co-director of the Paul Celan Department at the cole normale superieure in Paris and editor of Celan’s works and letters in Germany and France. Together with Eric Celan he manages the poet’s estate.

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