Jourdan, Pierre-Albert

PIERRE-ALBERT JOURDAN (1924-1981) has long been one of the best-kept secrets of French literature. His collected writings have been published in two volumes: Les Sandales de paille (1987) and Le Bonjour et l’adieu (1991). John Taylor, the translator of Jourdan’s The Straw Sandals, is the author of the two-volume Paths to Contemporary French Literature and Into the Heart of European Poetry. He has also written five books of stories, short prose, and poetry. He writes the “Poetry Today” column in the Antioch Review, and is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement, Context, the Yale Review, and the Michigan Quarterly Review. He lives in France.