Eugene Jolas
Eugene Jolas was an influential figure in the literary world, born on October 26, 1894, in Union Hill, New Jersey, to immigrant parents from Lorraine, a region marked by historical tensions between France and Germany. After a childhood in Lorraine, Jolas returned to the U.S. as a teenager and served in the army from 1916 to 1920. His career as a journalist and poet flourished in Paris, where he became city editor and contributed to the Paris Tribune, introducing notable French writers to American audiences and vice versa. In 1926, he established the literary magazine *transition*, which became a prominent platform for avant-garde writers and artists, including James Joyce and Gertrude Stein. Jolas's efforts not only enriched the literary landscape of the 1920s and 1930s but also left a lasting impact on the appreciation of modern literature in both the United States and Europe. Despite his own writing receiving less recognition, his role in promoting significant literary figures and movements remains a crucial aspect of his legacy. Jolas passed away on May 26, 1952, from acute nephritis.
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Eugene Jolas
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- Born: October 26, 1894
- Birthplace: Union Hill, New Jersey
- Died: May 26, 1952
- Place of death: Paris, France
Biography
Eugene Jolas was born on October 26, 1894, in Union Hill, New Jersey, to immigrant parents Eugene Pierre and Christine Ambach Jolas. His parents were both from Lorraine, the scene of heated disputes between France and Germany over the border region. Jolas’s parents seemingly reflected the divide, with his father speaking French and his mother speaking German. The Jolas family returned to Lorraine in 1896, and Jolas would not return to the United States until he was sixteen years old. He later recalled that he had to learn the English language “paradoxically” in the “Diaspora-wilderness of the legendary immigrant.” The continued conflict in Lorraine reached into the consciousness of its people, and Jolas was not exempt. He experienced frequent nightmares that left him as anxious as any longtime resident.
Jolas contemplated joining the priesthood, but instead he returned to the United States when he was sixteen and enlisted in the army, serving between 1916 and 1920. Upon his release, he remained in the United States, working as a journalist and writing poetry with religious undertones. Moving to Paris in 1924, Jolas became the city editor, contributing writer, and poet for the Paris Tribune. In this job, Jolas made his first impact on the literary world, introducing American readers to such important French writers as André Breton, André Gide, Jean Giraudoux, and Philippe Soupault, and promoting American writers such as Sherwood Anderson, Eugene O’Neill, and Ezra Pound. In 1926, he married Maria McDonald and the couple settled outside of Paris, where they eventually had two daughters.
Jolas founded the literary magazine transition in the fall of 1926. Under his editorship, the periodical became a bastion of the literary milieu in the 1920’s and 1930’s, publishing work by James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and other experimental writers, painters, and photographers. At this time, Jolas also was writing poetry and literary criticism, including a study of Joyce. After transition ceased publication in 1938, Jolas returned to the United States, where he worked for the U.S. Office of War Information in 1940. He died of acute nephritis on May 26, 1952. He is remembered less for his own writing than for his legacy of promoting great literature and art in the United States and Europe.