Henri Michaux

Henri Michaux was born in Namur on 24 May 1899 and grew up in Brussels, after a spell at boarding school in the Mechelen region. He began studying medicine, abandoned it and sailed as a seaman in 1920 and 1921; the discovery of Lautréamont decided him to write, and his first texts appeared in 1922. He travelled to Ecuador, then to Japan, China and India, and also described imaginary countries. A painter as much as a writer, naturalised French in 1955, he refused the grand prix national des Lettres in 1965, as he did every distinction, and died in Paris on 19 October 1984.

In the catalogue 1

• PoetryLa nuit remueHenri Michaux · 1935not translated into EnglishLiterature