Philéas Lebesgue

Philéas Lebesgue (26 November 1869 – 11 October 1958) was a French essayist, translator, poet, novelist, literary critic, and editor of the Mercure de France,

Life and career
Philéas Lebesgue was born on 26 November 1869 in La Neuville-Vault, Picardy, France, where his parents were farmers. He later embarked on a literary career which included travel to Portugal, Greece, and former Yugoslavia, the three countries which he held the literary chronicle the Mercure de France.

After studying Latin, English and Greek in college, he learned additional languages and wrote his first poems. In 1896, he became editor of the Mercure de France, an international journal. He was the chronicler of "Portuguese Letters" and would remain so until 1951. He was one of the few critics to discover and enjoy the great Portuguese poet Pessoa, in 1913.

Philéas Lebesgue studied at least sixteen foreign languages. These included German, English, Danish, Spanish, Galician, Welsh, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian and Czech. He also added Sanskrit to his repertoire, along with Old French, and three regional French languages: Breton, Provençal, and Picard. He worked on magazines in foreign languages, including L'Arte (Coimbra, 1895–1896), Atlantida (Lisbon, 1917), O Mundo (Lisbon, 1915), The Panathenaic (Athens, 1910), Periodikon nios (Piraeus, 1900), and The Vos (Madrid, 1923).

From 1926, Lebesgue chaired the Academy of the Ten Provinces and the League of Provincial Writers, which attempts to consolidate regional writers in both foreign and colonial French.

A poet symbolist in its infancy, Lebesgue wrote in verse as well as traditional free verse. He wrote poems in free verse or traditional, often evoking the landscapes of his country of Bray.

Lebesgue, in addition to being a novelist, songwriter, playwright, literary critic, columnist, and translator, also served as mayor of La Neuville-Vault from 1908 to 1947. In his works, he was inspired by nature, history, rural life, his travels and esotericism.

Lebesgue died in his hometown of La Neuville-Vault on 11 October 1958, aged 88.

Lebesgue and esotericism
The esotericism of Philéas Lebesgue is only poetic as that of his friend Oscar Milosz. In 1911, he joined the French Celtic League, created by the poet Robert Pelletier, to refute the "lies" of the Latin character of France. He agreed to be the Grand Druide des Gaules, the spiritual authority of the Collège Bardique des Gaules, founded in 1933 by poet and publisher of music, Jacques Heugel.

He was already in Breton bard who received the second prize of L'Hermine in 1892.

Société des Amis de Philéas Lebesgue
The Société des Amis de Philéas Lebesgue, or Association of Friends of Philéas Lebesgue, was founded in 1930 by teachers Camille Belliard and Marius Alphonse Gossez. The purpose of the association is to make known the life and work of the writer.

Studies devoted to Philéas Lebesgue

 * Gahisto (P.-M.), Au cœur des provinces - Philéas Lebesgue, Roubaix, Ed. du Beffroi, 1908, 80 p.
 * Gossez (A.-M.), Les Célébrités d'aujourd'hui - Philéas Lebesgue, Paris, Ed. Sansot, 1924, 32 p.
 * Striegler (Helmut), "Inaugural-Dissertation" : Philéas Lebesgue, ein Dichter der Pikardie, Université de Leipzig, 1934 (Étude publiée en 1935 en Allemagne).
 * Roger Berrou, Philéas Lebesgue le Paysan de l'Univers, dans le tome 1 des Œuvres poétiques, 1950, 131 p., réédité par la Société des Amis de Philéas Lebesgue, 1996.
 * Pierre Garnier, Philéas Lebesgue, poète de Picardie, coll. Éklitra, imp. Sinet, Grandvilliers,   43 p., 1967
 * Gisèle Le Crocq, Philéas Lebesgue et la Grèce, mémoire de Diplôme, Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines d'Aix-en-Provence, 1967-1968, 163 p. - Réédité dans le Bulletin des Amis de Philéas Lebesgue (n° 38 de 2004 au n° 42 de 2008).
 * André Camus, Jean Dubillet et Pierre Garnier, Le centenaire de Philéas Lebesgue, Eklitra, Amiens, 1969, 35 p.
 * François Beauvy, Le Paysage dans l'œuvre poétique de Philéas Lebesgue, mémoire de DEA, Université de Picardie -Jules Verne, 1994, publié en 1995 par la Société des Amis de Philéas Lebesgue, 150 pages.
 * Anton Figueroa, Lecturas alleas - Sobre das relacions con outras literaturas, Santiago de Compostele, Ed. Gotelo blanco, 1996, 155 p. (Publié en Espagne, traite de la correspondance de Philéas Lebesgue avec les écrivains de langue galicienne).
 * Claudio Veiga, Um Brasilianista francês - Philéas Lebesgue, Rio de Janeiro, Ed. Topbooks, 1998, 185 p. (Publié au Brésil).
 * François Beauvy, rubrique sur Philéas Lebesgue, dans le Dictionnaire de biographie française, Paris, Ed. Letouzey et Ané, tome XX, fascicule 115, 2003.
 * François Beauvy, Philéas Lebesgue et ses correspondants en France et dans le monde, thèse de doctorat, Université de Paris X - Nanterre, 2003, publiée en 2004, Beauvais, Ed. Awen, 674 p. et 16 p. hors-texte de Philéas Lebesgue et ses confrères.