# For Anatole's Tomb

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Unfinished poem by Stéphane Mallarmé

For Anatole's Tomb Author Stéphane Mallarmé Original title Pour un tombeau d'Anatole Translators Paul Auster Patrick McGuinness Language French Publisher Éditions du Seuil Publication date 1961 Publication place France Published in English 1983

"**For Anatole's Tomb**" ("Pour un tombeau d'Anatole") is an unfinished poem by the French writer [Stéphane Mallarmé](/source/St%C3%A9phane_Mallarm%C3%A9). It is also known as ***A Tomb for Anatole***. It was written after the death of Mallarmé's son Anatole in 1879. The finished fragments were published in 1961.

## Writing process

In 1879, Mallarmé's eight-year-old son Anatole died after a lengthy illness now diagnosed as pediatric rheumatism.

Mallarmé had previously written a "tomb" ("tombeau") poem after the death of [Edgar Allan Poe](/source/Edgar_Allan_Poe), and would later write tombeaux for [Charles Baudelaire](/source/Charles_Baudelaire) and [Paul Verlaine](/source/Paul_Verlaine). The aim of the tombeaux genre was not only to mourn, but also in a certain way to eternalize the dead person by means of the poem.[1] He started working on a "tomb" poem for his son, but it was never finished before Mallarmé himself died in 1898. Left were 202 sheets of fragmentary notes.[2]

## Publication

The finished material was published as *Pour un tombeau d'Anatole* in 1961 through [Éditions du Seuil](/source/%C3%89ditions_du_Seuil), with an introduction by [Jean-Pierre Richard](/source/Jean-Pierre_Richard).[2]

## English translations

An English translation by the American author [Paul Auster](/source/Paul_Auster) was published in the [Summer 1980 issue](https://www.theparisreview.org/poetry/3331/a-tomb-for-anatole-stephane-mallarme) of *[The Paris Review](/source/The_Paris_Review)*, and in book form in 1983, with the title *A Tomb for Anatole*.

A new translation by [Patrick McGuinness](/source/Patrick_McGuinness_(writer)), with the title *For Anatole's Tomb*, was published in 2003, and was selected as the year's Translation Choice by the [Poetry Book Society](/source/Poetry_Book_Society).[3] Will Stone reviewed the book in *[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)* in 2003, and called it "an honest, unaffected work", which "can be read with equal satisfaction by both an admirer of Mallarmé and someone who has read little or nothing of the poet before". Stone continued: "This collection has a curious intimacy and poignancy. It is hard to believe that these poem shards were written well over 100 years ago, since they seem so contemporary and accessible, despite any initial obscurity. The translation is careful but confident, finding the right balance between faithfulness to the French and sustaining a creative thrust in English."[1]

## See also

- [19th-century French literature](/source/19th-century_French_literature)

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-guardianreview_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-guardianreview_1-1) Stone, Will (2003-10-04). ["Fury against the formless"](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/04/featuresreviews.guardianreview11). *[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)*. Retrieved 2012-02-29.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-extract_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-extract_2-1) Staff writer (2003-05-17). ["From For Anatole's Tomb by Stéphane Mallarmé"](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/may/17/featuresreviews.guardianreview36). *[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)*. Retrieved 2012-02-29.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Staff writer (2011-07-27). ["Man Booker: Seren's Patrick McGuinness makes longlist"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-14307727). *[BBC Online](/source/BBC_Online)*. [BBC](/source/BBC). Retrieved 2012-02-29.

v t e Works by Stéphane Mallarmé L'après-midi d'un faune Poésies Divagations Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard For Anatole's Tomb

v t e Works by Paul Auster Fiction Squeeze Play (1982) The New York Trilogy (1987) In the Country of Last Things (1987) Moon Palace (1989) The Music of Chance (1990) Leviathan (1992) Mr. Vertigo (1994) Timbuktu (1999) The Book of Illusions (2002) Oracle Night (2003) The Brooklyn Follies (2005) Travels in the Scriptorium (2006) Man in the Dark (2008) Invisible (2009) Sunset Park (2010) 4 3 2 1 (2017) Baumgartner (2023) Screenplays The Music of Chance (1993) Smoke (1995) Blue in the Face (1995) Lulu on the Bridge (1998) The Inner Life of Martin Frost (2007) Memoir The Invention of Solitude (1982) Hand to Mouth (1997) The Story of My Typewriter (2002) Winter Journal (2012) Report from the Interior (2013) Other A Tomb for Anatole (1983) The Red Notebook (1995) Here and Now (2013) A Life in Words (2017) Talking to Strangers (2019) Burning Boy (2021) Bloodbath Nation (2023)

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