Arthur Cravan (born May 22, 1887, Lausanne, was last seen at Salina Cruz, Mexico in 1918 and most likely drowned in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico in November 1918). He was known as a pugilist, a poet, a
larger-than-life character, and an idol of the Dada and Surrealism movements. His real name was Fabian Avenarius Lloyd, the second son of Otho Holland Lloyd
and Hélène Clara St. Clair. He had a brother, Otho, born 1885. His father's sister, Constance Mary Lloyd, was married to the
Irish poet Oscar Wilde. He changed his name to Cravan in 1912
in honour of his fiancée Renée Bouchet, who was born in the small village of Cravans in the
department of Charente-Maritime in western France. Why
he chose the name Arthur remains unclear.
Biography
He was born and educated in Lausanne, Switzerland, and travelled widely throughout Europe
and America during World War I using a variety of passports and documents, some of them
forged. He declared no single nationality and claimed instead to be "a citizen of 20 countries".
His personal style involved a continual re-invention of his public persona and various outrageous statements and boasts. His
pride to be the nephew of Oscar Wilde even produced hoaxes - documents and poems - Cravan
wrote and then signed "Oscar Wilde". In 1913 he published an article in his self-edited paper
Maintenant, claiming that his uncle was still alive and had visited him in Paris. This
rumour was taken up even by the New York Times. In fact, the two of them never
met.
Cravan's skill as a professional boxer in itself provided a sort of street-credibility to his Dadaist reputation, but his
rough vibrant poetry, and provocative, anarchistic lectures and public appearances (which often degenerated into drunken brawls)
also earned him the admiration of Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, André Breton, and other artists and
intellectuals.
After he and Mina Loy married in 1918 they planned a trip from Mexico to Venezuela. Without enough money for both of them to book passage on a ship, Loy took the trip on a ship and
Cravan set out alone on a sailboat to Venezuela. Cravan never arrived, and intermittent and unconfirmed reports of his sighting
continued for many years.
His only daughter, Fabienne Lloyd, was born in England on April 5, 1919 and later went to the United States together with her mother. Her descendants live in Aspen, Colorado.
Speculation
A biographical graphic novel on the life of Arthur Cravan has been published by
Dark Horse Comics. Titled Cravan and written by the company publisher, Mike
Richardson, illustrated by Rick Geary, the biography puts forth the idea that Arthur Cravan
and B. Traven might be one and the same. B. Traven was the notoriously reclusive author of
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and like Cravan often employed
a pseudonym.
References
- 4 Dada Suicides: Selected Texts of Arthur Cravan, Jacques Rigaut, Julien Torma & Jacques Vache (Anti-Classics of
Dada) by Jacques Rigaut, Julien Torma,
Jacques Vache, and Arthur Cravan. Roger Conover (Editor), Terry J. Hale (Editor), Paul
Lenti (Editor), Iain White (Editor). (1995) Atlas Press ISBN 0-947757-74-0
External links
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