Evening star., 1943-04-17
WAR Writes Stranoe
Climax for Lost Poet
After Half a Century
Unpublished Manuscripts
Of Rimbuud Found in
Trunk in Ethiopia
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,


Star Staff Correspondent.
LONDON (By MaiD This is the
strange story of lost poet-one of
the weirdest in the annals of litera-
ture.
1t is the last chapter of a mystery
after a break of more than so
years-the mystery of Arthur Rim
baud.
He appeared as a 16-year- -old boy
in Paris in the early '7Os in the
depths of the depression which
gripped France after the Franco
Prussian War. During the next 10
years this child genius" became
one of the leading figures in mid
century French letters. He inaugu-
rated new school of poetry, anal
ogcus to the cubist school in art, and
perhaps the most advanced yet to
appear.
Reached for Stars.
He was trying to make words
sing songs and paint pictures in
three -dimensional forms and he was
the literary father on the school
represented by James Joyce in Great
Britain and to lesser extent bv
men like Thomas Wolfe in the
United States He reached for the
stars and just failed to grasp them.
The boy became the lion of a
somewhat decadent Partisan society
and in the next decade descended
into the utmost depths of the vice
of the period, often in company of
the Observation-Disclosures poet, Ver-
lalne. But he continued to write,
He remains one of the leading
figures of 10th century French lit
erature.
Then, in his Goth year, he disap-
peared. The next heard of him
was from French traveller in
Ethiopia who sensed something
familiar about a swarthy, tough
looking man among the adventurers
who f1ocked around the court of
KING Menelik, grandfather of the
present Ethiopian ruler.
Answers Questioner.
"You are not Rimbaud, the poet?"
he asked.
L was Rimbaud," the man re-
piled, and hurried away.
Disguised with the depths into
which he had sunk in Paris. the
poet had gone to Africa and allied
himself with Menelik as gun
runner. Those were the days when
the black ruler was consolidating
the African empire, so lately
Wrested back from the Italians. He
made, it was said, an enormous
fortune from these Illicit dealings
But his muse supposedly was sill
enced forever.
Rlmbaud returned to France,
however, in 1891 and went immedi-
ately to a retreat in the Ardennes
forest, where he worked feverishlv
1or months on book. AS soon as
1t was finished he threw the manu-
script in the fire. He had written.
he explained, only to get the poetry
out OF his system. He was through
with fame and wanted only the
freedom and brutality of Africa
once more.
Died in Delirium,
He started back, ACCOMPANIED bv
his sister. They got as far as
Marsellle. where. under somewhat
mysterious circumstances, Rimbald
was taken to a hospital and died
raVlng deliriously of an expedition
to conquer Africa.
A few months ago, when United
Nations expedition entered the citv
of Dire-Daua in Ethiopia, after
wrestling it from the Italian con-
querors, they found there the
legend Of wild Frenchman still
IN circulation after a half century.
The attention of one of the officers
was directed to an old trunk in a
room of one of the rude native inns
which had belonged to this wild
Frenchman.' When he opened it
ne found it filled with manuscripts
which Rimbaud had written and
hidden away during his guu-run-
nlnS Gays.
This story is revealed in recent
issue OF the Axis controlled Paris
Solr, which complains hypocriticallv
that the manuscripts may contain
some OF the great treasures of
French literature now in the hands
OF the crude, uncultured soldiers of
democracy. 1t is shame, the
paper intimates. that they could
not have fallen into the hands of
those heroic champions of sweet
ness and light who would have been
able to appreciate them-the Ger
mans or the Italians.
In any event, they are being kept
safe for the restoration of France.
Uncle Sam will keep 'em flying il