Francis Ponge

[2] Ponge worked for the Parisian publishing companies Gallimard (1923–1931) and Hachette (1931–1937), and before the outbreak of the Second World War he was briefly an insurance salesman.

[1] His earliest poems were published in 1923,[3] and he established a reputation in French literary circles, principally for his contributions to the Nouvelle Revue Française.

[1] Ponge avoided appeals to emotion and symbolism, and instead sought to minutely recreate the world of experience of everyday objects.

An extract from the original, and an English translation published in 1969, illustrate this: Le Savon Si je m'en frotte les mains, le savon écume, jubile... Plus il les rend complaisantes, souples, liantes, ductiles, plus il bave, plus sa rage devient volumineuse et nacrée... Pierre magique!

Plus il forme avec l'air et l'eau des grappes explosives de raisins parfumés... L'eau, l'air et le savon se chevauchent, jouent à saute-mouton, forment des combinaisons moins chimiques que physiques, gymnastiques, acrobatiques... Rhétoriques?

It provided financing for the publication of the Society's bulletin replaced since 2017 by the Cahiers Francis Ponge published by Classiques Garnier.

The Internet site (http://francisponge-slfp.ens-lyon.fr) offers news, historical as well as recent articles, links and contains some informations about Francis Ponge's works, letters and manuscripts and radio, video, photo archives.