Background
TARDIEU, Jean was born on November 1, 1903 in Saint-Germain-de-Joux. Son of Victor and Caroline (nee Luigini) Tardieu.
TARDIEU, Jean was born on November 1, 1903 in Saint-Germain-de-Joux. Son of Victor and Caroline (nee Luigini) Tardieu.
Lyc£e Condorcet and University de Paris.
He earned a degree in literature and worked for a publishing house. He published several poetry collections in the 1930s before starting to write for the stage. After World War Two, Tardieu entered the world of radio and worked his way to head of dramatic programming and then director of programs at France-Music.
The quality and success of French National Public Radio after World War Two has been attributed largely to Jean Tardieu.
Tardieu"s works mingled with the ideals of the French New Theatre and used comedy to pick apart more traditional theatre. He is often associated with the Theatre of the Absurd.
Some of his work has been translated into English, including:
The Underground Lovers, and other experimental plays
Going..Going..Gone! The Client Dies Twice: Three Plays (Black Apollo Press, )
The River Underground: Selected Poems & Prose
Some of his work is present in Julio Cortázar"s 1963 novel Rayuela (Hopscotch). Tardieu"s work is included in Chapter 152, entitled "Abuse Awareness".
The French composer Germaine Tailleferre of Les Six, who was a harp student of Tardieu"s mother Caroline and who first met Tardieu as a child, set several of Tardieu"s poems to music notably in the "Concerto des Vaines Paroles" for Baritone Voice, Piano and Orchestra and in the cycle "Trois Poèmes de Jean Tardieu" for Voice and Piano.
Married Marie-Laure TardieuBlot in 1932.