Death of René de Obaldia, the French Academy loses its dean

René de Obaldia (right), dean of the French Academy, died on January 27, 2022, at the age of 103.

Here in 2014 with writer Michael Edwards.

AFP - PATRICK KOVARIK

Text by: Muriel Maalouf

1 min

Poet, playwright, novelist, René de Obaldia died this Thursday, January 27, at the age of 103.

He is a discreet author of great humor that disappears, biting and caustic at the same time.

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“ 

 ” René de Obaldia liked to say, bursting out laughing, making Jean Paulhan's quip his own, with a humor that he never departed from.

Born in Hong Kong to a Panamanian father and a French mother, he arrived in France as a baby and did all his schooling in Paris.

Taken with a passion for the German romantics as a teenager, he decided very early to become a poet.

He published his first collection of poetry,

, in 1949. Other stories in poetic prose and three novels followed, including

in 1959, but it was towards the theater that he turned ultimately and by accident, he admits.

Because to earn a living, René de Obaldia became in 1952 secretary general of the cultural center of Royaumont.

To amuse the assistance of the abbey, he wrote an impromptu,

, where a young widow recounts the existence of the dear deceased.

The text was published in 1961 in the collection

.

Then followed several plays, including his great success

.

The world of literature today loses with René de Obaldia a great spirit close to Raymond Queneau, facetious and funny.

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► To read also:

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