ROSENBLATT, Kathleen Ferrick 1947-

PERSONAL:

Born 1947. Education: Canisius College, 1968; postdoctoral research in French studies.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA. Agent—c/o State University of New York Press, 90 State St., Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207-1707.

CAREER:

Author. Doctor of homeopathy and oriental medicine.

WRITINGS:

René Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kathleen Ferrick Rosenblatt's book René Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide is the result of twenty years of research and interviews with several people who knew the subject of the book personally. Daumal (1908-1944) was the author of several essays on topics as diverse as surrealism and Hindu esthetics; a book of poetry; and two allegories, A Night of Serious Drinking and Mount Analogue— the latter a classic work of esoteric spiritual fiction.

He was also founder of the avant-garde journal Le Grand Jeu, named after a literary group he formed in his teens with two like-minded peers. "They wanted political, psychological, and metaphysical revolution," explained Erik Davis in a review of Rosenblatt's book for the Village Voice. "Anticipating the 1960s, they explored automatic handwriting, astral travel, sensory deprivation, and drugs."

The young Daumal, who would die in Paris at the age of thirty-six from tuberculosis, was highly intellectual and is considered a seminal author of the metaphysical avant garde. A satirist, poet, essayist, and deeply spiritual ascetic, he taught himself Sanskrit at the age of sixteen. He combined the converging influences of Surrealism, Marxism, Hinduism, Freudianism, and parapsychology in his struggle for a more personal understanding of spirituality; he is credited with being the first to find a connection between classical Hindu poetics and the revolutionary, spiritual teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff. Daumal's contact with Gurdjieff instigated a radical life change in the young man that fostered a revolutionary approach to the workings of the inner human being and the entire cosmos.

Rosenblatt translated Daumal's works from their original French, and her book is the first comprehensive investigation into all aspects of his life and work. In her review of René Daumal for Parabola, Fran Shaw praised the "enthusiastic style" employed by Rosenblatt as a catalyst for a heightened appreciation of Daumal's works.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Parabola, February, 2000, Fran Shaw, review of René Daumal: The Life and Work of a Mystic Guide, pp. 132-136.

Publishers Weekly, December 7, 1998, Jonathan Bing, review of René Daumal, p. 48.

Village Voice, September 21, 1999, Erik Davis, review of René Daumal, p. 87.*