Raymond Schwartz (8 April 1894 – 14 May 1973) was a French banker andEsperanto author who wrote many poems and novels in Esperanto, as well as skits which he directed forParisianEsperantocabarets.
Schwartz was born into a French-speaking family inMetz, a city inAlsace-Lorraine (German:Elsass-Lothringen) that from the1871 to the1918 was part ofGermany. He received a good education in Metz and spoke not onlyFrench andGerman often but alsoLatin andGreek.
Very early he became anEsperantist and dreamt of a better future through the diffusion of Esperanto.World War I, when he was conscripted into the German army and had to fight on theEastern Front, was a disaster for him as apacifist and for theEsperanto movement in general. After the war he did not remain inMetz, now again a French city, but moved to Paris, where he worked in a large banking firm until his retirement.
Between the wars he published in different periodicals, particularly inLiteratura Mondo (Literary World), and wrote two volumes of poetry. His poetic worksVerdkata testamento (The Will of the Green Cat) (1926) andStranga butiko (The Strange Boutique)[1] (1931) are imaginative and humorous fantasies involving word games, characteristics also found inProzo ridetanta (1928) (Smiling Prose).
His short novelAnni kaj Montmartre (Annie and Montmartre, 1930) recounts the adventures of a young naîve German woman in Paris; it departs from the conventions of original Esperanto literature, in particular because of its style of writing.
From 1933 to 1935 he published the monthly satirical magazineLa Pirato (The Pirate), which made him a sort ofenfant terrible of theEsperanto movement, one for whom there were no secrets and for whom everything was an occasion for humour.
His masterwork, published afterWorld War II, isKiel akvo de l' rivero (Like the water of the river), considered as his most significant and most moving book. This is a partly autobiographical novel of a young Frenchman from the Franco-German frontier who comes to Berlin after graduation but must flee at the outbreak of war in 1914. During theoccupation of France by Nazi Germany he joins theFrench Resistance. After the war he once more meets in Paris the woman he loved as a young man in Berlin. This classic novel about a family torn apart by two world wars is both serious and amusing.
He collaborated onSennacieca Revuo, an annual cultural review published bySennacieca Asocio Tutmonda (World Non-National Association), writing a column titled "Laŭ mia ridpunkto". The name was aportmanteau word formed fromvidpunkto, (Esperanto for "viewpoint") andridi ("to laugh"). The column itself was written in a humorous style that includedkalemburoj (puns) andantistrofoj (spoonerisms).
Serious and competent in his profession, he showed an altogether different face in the Esperanto cabarets, where he created many skits, creating for Esperantists the character of a merry drunkard. Since 1881 there had been inParis a famous cabaret known asLe Chat Noir ("The Black Cat"). AtMontmartre, on the outskirts of Paris, he founded in December 1920 an Esperanto cabaret calledLa Verda Kato ("The Green Cat"),[2] which he directed from 1920 to 1926, as well asLa Bolanta Kaldrono ("The Boiling Cauldron"), which ran from 1936 to 1939. In 1949 he was joint founder ofTri Koboldoj ("Three Imps"), which continued in existence until 1956. His skits and books were amusing, spiritual and sometime risqué. "If people cannot laugh at themselves, they have not grown up" was a favourite saying of his.
Verdkata testamento (1926 poetry collection, reprinted 1930, 1974, 1992) With afterword by Reinhard Haupenthal, Iltis-Eld., Saarbrücken: 1992, 121 pp. ISBN978-3-927613-20-1
Prozo ridetanta (1928 prose works) Esperantista Centra Librejo, Paris, 1928. 126 pp.
Anni kaj Montmartre (1930 novel, illustrated by Raymond Laval, reprinted 1974) Solsona, Paris: 1930; 1974 reprint by Dansk Esperanto-Forlag, Aabyhoj.ISBN978-87-85020-75-8
La stranga butiko (1931 poetry collection), illustrated by Raymond Laval, Solsona: Paris, 1930., 124 pp.
La ĝoja podio (1949 poetry collection) Esperantista Centra Librejo, Paris. 271 pp.
Kia honto (1950 original stories) Regensburg, 50 pp.
Kiel akvo de l’ rivero (1963 novel, reprinted 1987, 1991) Edistudio, Pisa. 487 pp. ISBN978-88-7036-048-6
"La ĝendarmo deĵoras" and "Bapto de l’ sonorilo en Mulmont" in33 rakontoj (an Esperanto anthology), Régulo, La Laguna: 1964, 328 pp. (Vol. XVII inBel-literatura eldon-serio.)
Kun siaspeca spico (1971 humorous essay anthology) Includes all the "Laŭ mia ridpunkto" columns, 215 pp.
Vole... Novele: aŭ kvindek jaroj da noveloj, 1920 - 1970 (1971 novellas, reprinted 1987) TK: Copenhagen, 1971, 192 pp. ISBN978-87-87089-01-2; reprinted 1987 by Iltis-Eld., Saarbrücken
"Bapto de l’ sonorilo en Mulmont" (fromLa ĝoja podio), "La pipo de Prosper" and "La ĝendarmo deĵoras" inTrezoro: la Esperanta novelarto 1887-1986, Reto Rossetti and Henri Vatré, eds., Hungara Esperanto-Asocio, Budapest: 1989.ISBN978-963-571-105-5
"La ĝendarmo deĵoras" inVivo kaj morto de Wiederboren Sezonoj:Jekaterinburg, 1998, 80 pp.
Ne kiel Meier: Invito al revizio de niaj konceptoj pri la konjugacio en Esperanto, Unuiĝo Franca por Esperanto, Paris, 1930, 47 pp., reprinted 1964.
Foreword by Raymond Schwartz in Cezaro Rossetti'sKredu min, sinjorino, Heroldo de Esperanto, Scheveningen, 1950, 260 pp., reprinted 1974, 1990
"Sen mistiko kontraŭ mistifiko" inLa Zamenhofa Esperanto, Hendrik A. de Hoog, ed., Régulo: La Laguna (1961), 329 pp.
"Kompleta inventaro de la pasivaj participoj-ata kaj-ita kunligitaj kun la formo de la verboesti en la verkoLa rabistoj." Paris: 1968, 10 pp., reprinted 1995
"Lirica e praticità; Liriko kaj praktiko; Le diverse età dell' uomo; La diversaj aĝoj de l' homo" inEl la nova ĝardeno (Dal nuovo giardino), Dante Bertolini, ed., Pedrazzini: Locarno, 1979, 100 pp.
"Esperantisto, ekesto kaj malapero" and "Esperanta eliksiro" inNova Esperanta krestomatio, William Auld, ed., Universala Esperanto-Asocio: Rotterdam: 1991, 509 pp.,ISBN978-92-9017-043-3. Series title:Jubilea kolekto Jarcento de Esperanto
Paris toujours Paris (Parizo ĉiam Parizo). French lyrics by L. Bergen le Play, tr. into Esperanto by Raymond Schwartz; music composed by J. M. Hamonic. Omnium, Paris: 1930.
Ĉiu ĉiu. French lyrics by André Hornez, tr. into Esperanto by Raymond Schwartz; music composed by Nicanor Molinare. Ed. Musicales Imperia, Paris, 1948.
Koro estas eta instrument sekreta. Esperanto lyrics by Raymond Schwartz, tr. into Polish and arranged by Zbigniew Sochacki. Music composed by Oktawian Kalmanowicz. Pola Esperanto Asocio, Lublin, 1960.
Marie-Thérèse Lloancy,Esperanto et jeu de mots dans l’oeuvre de Raymond Schwartz, thesis dissertation for Université René Descartes, Paris, 1985
Marie-Thérèse Lloancy, "Les jeux de mots de Raymond Schwartz dans trois ouvrages en Espéranto publiés par Stafeto -La Zamenhofa Esperanto, Kiel akvo de l’ rivero etKun siaspeca spico" inSerta gratulatoria in honorem Juan Régulo. Universidad de La Laguna, Salamanca, 3,266 pp., 1986ISBN978-84-600-4290-7
Jean Thierry, "Raymond Schwartz (1894-1973) la vortĵonglisto" inLa stato kaj estonteco de la internacia lingvo Esperanto (Proceedings of the first symposium of the Esperanto Academy (Prague, 1994). Petr Chrdle, ed., LinkKava-Pech: Prague, 1995, 190 pp.ISBN978-80-85853-08-7
Paul P. Gubbins, "Majstra muzikado: Berlino en romanoj de Varankin kaj Schwartz" inLingva arto. Vilmos Benczik, ed., Universala Esperanto-Asocio, Rotterdam: 1999, 217 pp.ISBN978-92-9017-064-8
