Jacques Bens

Jacques Bens (25 March 1931 – 26 July 2001) was a French writer and poet.

Biography

Born of teacher-parents at Cadolive, Jacques Bens spent his childhood and his youth in Marseilles, where his studies in zoology were interrupted in 1951 for health reasons. He became the son-in-law of Célestin Freinet, collaborated with the Freinet Modern School Movement and worked at the Coopérative de l'enseignement secaire (CEL).

Jacques Bens worked from 1960 to 1963 under the direction of Raymond Queneau at the Encyclopédie de la Pléiade. Dataire of the College of 'Pataphysics; Bens was a co-founder member of the Oulipo, participated on 24 November 1960 with Claude Berge, François Le Lionnais, Jean Lescure, Raymond Queneau and Jean Queval at the first meeting of which he was definitively appointed provisional secretary.

In 1963, Jacques Bens returned to the Alpes-Maritimes, where he was responsible for various publishing works and then relations with the press of the Théâtre de Nice (1972–1975). In 1975 he returned to Paris and took part in Jacques Duchateau's Panorama of France Culture and other programmes such as .

Between 1980 and 1991, he was general secretary of the Société des gens de lettres and held the crossword heading of L'Express and Lire.

Works Jacques Bens himself collected his books under different sections: « prose rimée » (poetry), « prose romanesque » (novels), « prose méditative » (reflexions), « prose didactique » (essays), « prose dramatique » (theatre and radio) and « prose secrétariale » (séessuibs of the Oulipo). He is also the author of the introduction of the collection of the pedagogical works of his famous father-in-law, Célestin Freinet. (Œuvres pédagogiques de Célestin Freinet, Éditions du Seuil, 1994.)

« Prose rimée » (poems) 1958: Chanson vécue, collection Métamorphoses, Éditions Gallimard, 104 p. (Prix Fénéon) 1962: 41 sonnets irrationnels, Gallimard 1966: Le Retour au pays, Gallimard 1967: Métagrammes 1968: Petites prophéties populaires 1978: Onzains incertains, texte autographié, , Paris, 25 p. 2004: De l'Oulipo et de la Chandelle verte, complete poetry, preface by Jacques Roubaud, edition by François Caradec, Gallimard,

Prose romanesque (novels and short stories) 1958: Valentin, Gallimard 1959: La Plume et l'ange, Gallimard 1962: Sept jours de liberté, short stories, Gallimard 1962: La Trinité, Gallimard 1969: Adieu Sidonie, Gallimard 1976: Rouge grenade, Éditions Grasset, 1979: Rendez-vous chez François, Bibliothèque oulipienne 1979: Le Pain perdu, with twenty etchings of Proscynska, by the artist 1983: Cinq châteaux de cartes, series " Arc-en-Poche", Nathan, (Prix Jean Macé) 1986: Gaspard de Besse, Ramsay, (Goncourt du Récit historique) 1988: Nouvelles des enchanteurs, Ramsay, 1990: Nouvelles désenchantées, Seghers,, 224 p. (Goncourt de la Nouvelle) 1994: Les Dames d'onze heures, Éditions Julliard, 168 p. 1997:La Belle Étoile, Atelier du Gué 1998:Lente sortie de l'ombre, Stock

« Prose méditative » (réflexions) 1975: Pense-bête 1989: La Cinquantaine à Saint-Quentin, Seghers 1997: Quarante-neuf questions pour essayer de comprendre le monde, Les Guère Épais, Plurielle 2000: 12 maximes fin de siècle, Atelier-Musée Livre & Typographie

« Prose didactique » (essays) 1962: Queneau, Bibliothèque idéale, Gallimard 1967: Guide des jeux d'esprit, Albin Michel 1976: Boris Vian, Présence littéraire, Bordas 1979: La Semence d'Horus (Contes de l'Égypte des Pharaons), Garnier Frères, 1992: Ginkgo biloba, l'arbre aux quarante écus, SEMAPA 1994: Marcel Pagnol, Écrivains de toujours, Éditions du Seuil

« Prose dramatique » (theatre and radio) 1973: Les Frelons, after Aristophanes, Comédy by Saint-Étienne 1986: Les Vaudois, France Culture 1987: Geoffroy Tête noire à Ventadour, Festival de la Luzège 1989: Une si jolie maison dans le soleil levant, Radio France 1989: La Guerre aux étangs, Festival de la Luzège

« Prose secrétariale » (sessions of the Oulipo). 1980: Oulipo, 1960-1963, Christian Bourgois; L'Oulipo, genesis of the Oulipo, 1960-1963, revised and expanded edition, presented by Jacques Duchateau, , 2005

Trivia 1998: La cuisine en jeux, 1999: Mots croisés I and II, Zulma

Posthumous publications Jacques Bens, textes inédits [Raymond Queneau et la littérature potentielle, Pour une potentialité nouvelle], in Cahiers Raymond Queneau, Association des amis de Valentin Brû, éditions Calliopées, Clamart, 2011, (p. 49-64)