Herbert Van Uffelen Studies in buitenkant – Studies in Surroundings: Edgar Du Perron and the Modernists Edgar Du Perron (1899-1940) is regarded as one of the most important Dutch authors of the interwar period. He established himself as a renowned writer with his novel Het land van herkomst (1935) and as a contributor to the magazine Forum (1931-1935) which he founded together with Menno Ter Braak (1902-1940). Forum propagated the relevance of an authentic person- ality to literature and distanced itself from formal experiment and lyrical- sentimental effusion alike. What is less well-known is Du Perron’s avant- garde past, which originated in Paris in the 20s and is usually dismissed as a youthful peccadillo in view of Du Perron’s declaration that this period of his life was a mere “salutary sickness” (Snoek, E. du Perron 3701). Close inspec- tion, however, reveals this phase to be more than a bout of sickness, albeit a salutary one. Much rather, Du Perron discovered very early a poetics that was later labelled modernist and that was to allow him to express his personality authentically in his work.2 Edgar Du Perron was born in Gedong Menu, a former Dutch colony, and moved with his – then well-off – parents to Europe. They settled in Brussels, but the barely 21-year-old Edgar was soon drawn to Paris. At that time, Paris was “the magical centre of the universe” (Snoek, E. du Perron 265) for the young European Du Perron – but his knowledge of Paris was then basically limited to Le Chat Noir and the Moulin Rouge. A major change occurred when Eddy, as he was called by his friends, got to know his first muse Clairette Petrucci (1899-1994). She not only introduced Du Perron to her “favourite authors” (Snoek, E. du Perron 262) Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848- 1907) and Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), but he also found in her library the works of Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), Max Jacob (1876-1944) and Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961) (Veenstra 7). Through Clairette, Du Perron’s “romantic” (Bulhof 19) Paris of Toulouse-Lautrec was transformed into the capital of the avant-garde. 1 The author provided German translations of all Dutch quotes, which were in turn translated into English by Caterina Novák. 2 Du Perron himself always spoke about ‘modernism’ or about ‘the modernists’. To better distinguish between his early period and his later modernist one (Fokkema and Ibsch), the term ‘(anti)-avantgarde’ is here used consistently (except in direct quotes) to refer to the pe- riod before 1927, while the later period is labelled modernist, or modernism. 268 Herbert Van Uffelen Eddy Du Perron realized his dream at the beginning of March 1922. He moved to Paris for a while, staying in the famously infamous Montmartre district, leading the Bohemian life of a son of rich parents with all its ameni- ties: the father’s financial support, a room in a meagre hotel, a black hat and – if possible – a maîtresse (Du Perron, Voorbereiding 30; Veenstra 8).3 De- spite the fact that, at the beginning of 1922, the heyday of Montmartre was actually over, the centre of artistic life having in the meantime shifted to Montparnasse, Du Perron could nevertheless still meet some interesting per- sonalities: Oscar Duboux (1899-1950) and Pedro Creixams (1893-1965), who were later to illustrate some of his works; Max Jacob; and, last but not least, Pascal Pia (1902-1979). Pascal was not only his “mentor” (Bulhof 19; Pia 9), Du Perron also brought out some of his (erotic) works and in 1933, together with him, published the – unfortunately unsuccessful – Bouquet poétique des médecins. Coping with the new literary movement in Paris cost him quite an effort, since the young Du Perron was skeptical towards the so-called Modernists. In 1921 he had still written about Jean Cocteau’s poetry: “My admiration for Jean Cocteau has drowned completely after I immersed myself into the river of his verses. It was a fatal bath and I am afraid it would also result for you in admiration and suicide if you were to do the same. If not, I expect an expla- nation of what it is all about. Is this meant to be cubism in literature? Or just a mere farce?” (Snoek, E. du Perron 262) Consequently, it was not to be expected that this short stay in Paris and the often fleeting encounters with individual authors and artists would dispel his mistrust. On the contrary, Du Perron started with an “anti-modernist” project (Snoek, E. du Perron 273). In May 1922 he told Clairette that he had produced a long poem which was the first in a series of “verses without rhyme and reason […] without commas, full-stops, and so on, without talent, without expert knowledge and full of ideas which I myself cannot explain” (Snoek, E. du Perron 272). This long poem developed into the Manuscrit trouvé dans une poche (1923). 3 The fact that the newly-established Bohemian received financial support from his father was of course carefully concealed from his new-found Parisian friends (Snoek, E. du Perron 267). .