Suzanne Renaud – Key dates

1889
30 September. Born in Lyon.

1894
Moves to Grenoble, 9 rue Lesdiguières.
Studies at the High School for Girls and the Faculty of Letters in Grenoble.

1914-1918
Army nurse in Grenoble during the war.

Around 1919
Trip to La Louvesc. Meets Joseph Parnin, Charles Forot and the Vivarais writers.

1922
Ta vie est là… [Your Life Is There…] published by éditions du Pigeonnier in Saint-Félicien-en-Vivarais.

1923
In Grenoble, meets Czech poet and translator Bohuslav Reynek, who read Ta vie est là… [Your Life Is There…]
in his country and wants to translate it.

1924
5 January. Suzanne Renaud’s mother dies. This event leaves a mark on all her work.

1926
Zde tvůj život…, Bohuslav Reynek’s translation of Ta vie est là… (Your Life Is There…), is published in Bohemia.
13 March. Marries Bohuslav Reynek in Grenoble.

1926-1936
Winter in Grenoble. Summer in Petrkov, Reynek’s home village.
Daniel (1928) and Michel (1929) are born in France.
Bohuslav Reynek translates and illustrates many poems, which are published in Czechoslovakia.

1932
Pardubice publishes the original edition in French of Ailes de cendre [Wings of Ash] in Bohemia.

1936
Settles permanently in Petrkov, Bohuslav Reynek’s home village.
First winter in Petrkov.

1938-1939
Corbeaux (Crows), translated and illustrated by Bohuslav Reynek.
Political events — the Anschluss (March 1938), Munich (September 1938),
And the invasion of Czechoslovakia (15 March 1939) — have an impact on the poet’s work: Victimae laudes,
published in 1939 by Vlastimil Vokolek, and Vánoce, a Christmas.

1944-1945
Expelled from Petrkov by the Germans, the Reynek family takes refuge at publisher
Josef Florian’s home in Moravia.

1943-1953
Period of silence in the poet’s personal work. Translates popular Czech poems: “Romarin ou Annette et Jean” [“Rosemary, or Annette and Jean”] (manuscript). Corresponds with writer Henri Pourrat (1947-1959).

1947
Last trip to Dauphiné. Dveře v přítmí [The Grey Door], a collection of old published poems, comes out
in Bohuslav Reynek’s translation. Suzanne Renaud lives in exile until her death.

1953-1956
Poems of her last years: they are not published until 1999, in France.
Prepares the collection L’Aurore invisible [The Invisible Dawn].

1964
21 January. Suzanne Renaud dies in Havlíčkův Brod.