QUENEAU, RAYMOND

born Feb. 21, 1903, Le Havre, France died Oct. 25, 1976, Paris French author who produced some of the most important prose and poetry of the mid-20th century. After working as a reporter for L'Intransigeant (193638), Queneau became a reader for the prestigious Encyclopdie de la Pliade, a scholarly edition of past and present classical authors, and by 1955 was its director. From Queneau's Surrealist period in the 1920s he retained a taste for verbal juggling, a tendency toward black humour, and a derisive posture toward authority. His puns, sneers, spelling extravaganzas, and other linguistic contortions concealed a total pessimism, an obsession with death. His corrosive laughter rang out in the seemingly light verse of his childhood reminiscences in Chne et chien (1937; Oak and Dog), a novel in verse, and in more philosophical poems: Les Ziaux (1943), Petite Cosmogonie portative (1950; A Pocket Cosmogony), and Si tu t'imagines (1952; If You Imagine). The pattern of his novels was similar: from a familiar settinga suburb, an amusement park, or a Paris subwayemerged the vision of an absurd world. Such is the format of Le Chiendent (1933; The Bark Tree); Zazie dans le mtro (1959; Zazie), probably his best-known work (filmed 1960); Les Fleurs bleues (1965; The Blue Flowers); and Le Vol d'Icare (1968; The Flight of Icarus). These chronicles of simple people are recounted in language that ranges from everyday slang to the loftiest poetic diction.