Constant Marie (original) (raw)

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French communard, shoemaker, anarchist and poet

Constant Marie
1900 portrait
Born (1838-08-17)17 August 1838Sainte-Houvrince, Calvados, France
Died 17 August 1910(1910-08-17) (aged 72)
Nationality French
Occupation(s) Mason, shoemaker
Known for Anarchist songs

Constant Marie, known as Le Père Lapurge (17 August 1838 – 5 August 1910) was a French communard, shoemaker, anarchist and poet. He was the author of several popular revolutionary songs.

Constant Marie was born on 27 August 1838 in Sainte-Houvrince, Calvados.[1]He began work as a bricklayer. He participated in the Paris Commune, and was wounded in the fighting at the Vanves fort.[2]

Anarchist shoemaker and songwriter

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Due to his injuries Constant Marie was forced to change occupation to become a shoemaker. He became an anarchist and began to compose revolutionary songs.[2]Within twelve years of the fall of the commune in 1871, Constant Marie's songs had become very popular in some circles.[3]Constant Marie often performed at festivities of anarchist groups. He came to the attention of the police, who searched his house on 1 July 1894 and seized books and the texts of his songs. He was arrested and charged with "membership of a criminal conspiracy." He spent several weeks in the Mazas Prison.[2]As a young man the anarchist, journalist and then Communist activist Fernand Desprès (1879–1949) worked as a shoemaker with Constant Marie.[4]

Constant Marie died on 5 August 1910.[1]

Le Père Lapurge ("Father Purge") was published in 1886 in the Calais anarchist newspaper La Révolte des Affamés. Constant Marie's other well-known songs included Dame dynamite and La Muse rouge. This last gave its name in 1901 to a famous group of revolutionary poets and singers.[2]By 1891 he was also known for Révolté, Jacques normand, Tocsin and Affranchie.[5]His songs continued to be performed in cabarets after the turn of the century.[3]

  1. ^ a b MARIE Constant, Maitron.
  2. ^ a b c d Tatum 2008.
  3. ^ a b Godin 2008, p. 449.
  4. ^ Robin 2014.
  5. ^ Gegout 1891, p. 179.