About the Author

Born in Tours in 1923, Yves Bonnefoy graduated in history of science and philosophy. He is first and foremost, however, a writer, and has devoted himself primarily to the analysis of poetry and art. In 1953, he published his first volume of poems, Du Mouvement et de l'immobilite de Douve, and he has just published his sixth volume, Ebut et fin de la neige. He has also written numerous essays, including Rome 1630, L'Improbable, l'Arriere-Pays, Entretiens sur la poesie, and has translated Shakespeare and Yeats into French. Many of his poetic works have been translated into English (his most recent is In the Shadow's Light, University of Chicago Press, 1990) along with a number of his essays ("The Act and the Place of Poetry', 'The Lure and Truth of Painting'). He was awarded the Prix Montaigne in 1978 and the Bennett Award in New York in 1988. He has been invited to teach at numerous American universities, among them Yale, Princeton, the University of California and City University, New York. He was elected in 1981 to a Chair of Comparative Poetry at the College de France. He is a doctor honoris causa at various universities, including the University of Chicago.