Saint-John Perse (redirected from Saint-John Marie René Auguste Alexis Saint-Léger Perse)

Saint-John Perse

 orig. Marie-René-Auguste-Aléxis Saint-Léger Léger

(born May 31, 1887, Saint-Léger-les Feuilles, Guad.—died Sept. 20, 1975, Presqu'ile-de-Giens, France) French poet and diplomat. He served in various diplomatic posts from 1914 until his dismissal by the collaborationist Vichy government in 1940. He spent the years 1940–57 in exile in the U.S. The language of his poetry, admired especially by poets for its precision and purity, is difficult, and he made little appeal to the general public. His works include Anabasis (1924; translated by T.S. Eliot), Exile (1942), Winds (1946), Seamarks (1957), and Birds (1962). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1960.