Charles Charles

Charles Cros was born on October 1, 1842 in the city of Fabrezan (department Aude ) in the south of France , in a large and prosperous family. Charl had two older brothers - Antoine, who became a doctor , and Henri, whose vocation was sculpture . Since childhood, Kro tried himself in various fields of knowledge - he studied ancient languages, then began to take music and drawing lessons, soon began to study medicine and theology. But soon the study bored him, and he plunged into the bohemian life, supported by his brothers, who also were not averse to participating in the festivities of the aristocratic youth. At this point, he meets a girl who was not destined to become his wife, but with whom most of his life will be connected - Nina de Villard.

Endless celebrations, sitting in the taverns brought him fame as a reveler, a frivolous chansonnier, but still a talented writer. But at some point his unbridled passion has cooled, and he is interested in science, which he has been studying since childhood. He spends a lot of time working on color photography. In 1867, at the World Exhibition in Paris , Cro had already demonstrated an automatic telegraph. In the same year, he filed an application for the invention of the device "for recording and reproducing in color forms and movements." At the age of 27, Charles published a work entitled “The General Solution to the Problems of Color Photography” ( Solution générale du problème de la photographie des couleurs ), as well as “A Review of Possible Connections with the Planets”.

But besides his studies in science, he still devotes some time to literary activity. He writes poems and stories that are rarely published. The only collection of his creations will be "Sandalowy Casket" ( Le Coffret de santal ), which will be released in microscopic circulation. But he greatly excelled in the genre of monologues, which became especially popular in France at the end of the XIX century , thanks to the then popular actor Coquelin, ml. At this time, he parted with his love Nina, and soon marries a Danish woman Maria Hyardmaal, who will give him two beautiful sons.

However, all his literary and scientific studies again added to his main hobbies: alcohol, noisy life, salons and literary readings - all that France was famous for in the 1870-1880-ies. From 1869, his poems began to appear in the literary magazine Parnassus along with Mallarmé , Villiers and Verlaine , making him a popular figure in the Latin Quarter of Paris .

The constant complaints from the family bring him back to normal, and he starts working again. So, when Cro turned thirty, he began a study of auditory perception and published the book Principles of the Mechanism of the Brain. And on April 30, 1877 , when he was 35 years old, he submits to the Academy of Sciences a description of the “ palephone ” - a device for recording and reproducing speech ^[7] . In October of the same year, Thomas Edison's patent for the “improvement of the instrument for controlling and reproducing sounds” was published, and on December 11, 1877, in the Rapel magazine, Victor Meunier placed an article entitled “Mr. .

In the end, science has bored him, and he begins a simple and measured life. But soon his wife, Maria Hyardemaal, dies, which leads him to a deep upset. In 1888, Charles Cros died in the arms of his elder brother, the doctor Antoine, who would later give the conclusion "he died from complete incoherence of the internal organs."

In 1947 , the Charles Cros Academy was founded in France by a group of musicians and music critics which, among other things, presents annual awards for the best disks of the year in several nominations.

Songs to poems by Charles Cros were performed by Brigitte Bardot and Juliette Greco .

• Solution générale du problème de la photographie des couleurs (1869) - inventions;
• Le Coffret de santal (1873 and 1879) - poetry;
• Le Fleuve (1874) - poetry;
• La Vision du Grand Canal des Deux Mers (1888) - poetry;
• Le Collier de griffes (1908) - poetry;
• Plainte (1873) - poetry.

• Damned poets. Compilation, article, comments M. D. Yasnova . - SPb. : Science, 2005. - (Library of the Foreign Poet) - p. 157-260.

Kro's poems were translated into Russian by I. Annensky , I. Ehrenburg , Sun. Rozhdestvensky , M. Vaksmakher , M. Yasnov and others.

• Cro's stories about his inventions (English)