Jacques Audiberti

Jacques Audiberti (Antibes, 1899 - Paris, 1965) was a French writer who worked in theatre, poetry and the novel. He is often linked to the Theatre of the Absurd, though his work does not fit neatly into any single movement. He matters for the mix of tones he brought to the stage and for his place in Parisian literary life between the wars and after.

He was born in Antibes, the only son of a master mason. His schooling there was cut short by health problems. He began by publishing poems and columns in a local paper, and he is said to have received encouragement from Edmond Rostand. He worked as a clerk at the Commercial Court before moving to Paris in the mid-1920s to write for Le Journal and Le Petit Parisien. Through Benjamin Péret he came into contact with Surrealism, though he never joined the group.

His first poetry collection, L'Empire et la Trappe, appeared in 1930 with his father's financial help. In 1938 he won the Mallarmé prize for Race des hommes. During the Occupation he wrote film criticism, and after the war theatre became his main outlet and brought him his greatest successes. His writing combines comedy and tragedy, with a carefully worked language and a restless view of good and evil. In 1962, the premiere of La Fourmi dans le corps at the Comédie-Française caused a memorable uproar in the audience.

His legacy is most visible in Antibes, which named a high school after him and created a literary prize in his name in 1979. He died in Paris in 1965, a few weeks before the publication of his diary Dimanche m'attend.