"The Poet makes himself a seer by a long, vast and reasoned derangement of all the senses--every form of love, of suffering, of madness.
~Arthur Rimbaud
"I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos--especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom.....Rather than starting inside, I start outside and reach the mental through the physical."
~Jim Morrison
Wallace Fowlie, Professor Emeritus of French Literature at Duke University, died in 1998 at the age of 89. He is the author/translator of thirty books, including Rimbaud:A Critical Study and The Complete Works of Rimbaud, a translation. Most of his books were published by Duke University Press.
In 1968 Jim Morrison wrote a personal note to Wallace thanking him for taking the time to translate so many of the French author's work into English. "I don't read French that easily....I am a rock singer and your book travels with me." Fourteen years later, when Fowlie first heard the music of the Doors, he recognized the influence or Rimbaud in Morrison's lyrics. For some reason, he had kept the note that Morrison sent him in 1968.
Rimbaud and Morrison had many things in common. The things that struck me immediately were that both were "Military Brats" (I'm a Brat myself), both had "careers" lasting less than four years, both died young, both were labeled rebels, both were poets whose poetry became more famous after their deaths. Both were geniuses who led self destructive lives, "lived life to the max" , questioned authority, and dared to speak out in lyric protest.