THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT ALSO TO LOOK AT KIP FENN, A MAJOR NOVEL ABOUT THE 21st CENTURY
- freely available on this site
Michaux, Henri ___ 1899-1984 ___ Belgian
___ artist poet
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Michaux was born in Namur, the
son of a catholic lawyer, and educated at a Jesuit school in Brussels. He
toyed with the priesthood and with medicine (starting studies at Brussels
University), but chose to go travelling in North and South America, working
as a ship's stoker in the French merchant navy. Having returned to Belgium,
Michaux began writing for the magazine 'Le Disque Vert' but, faced with
his parents disapproval, he moved to Paris. There he supported himself by
working as a teacher and secretary. He became interested in the art of the
time, that being produced by Paul Klee and Salvador Dalí for example,
and wrote for avant-garde reviews. His friend, the photographer Gilberte
Brassaï, encouraged his writing of poetry. In 1927, Michaux travelled
to Ecuador and then published his diary of the journey. Is said that Michaux
'used the pen to write and draw' and 'explored the boundaries of different
forms of expression'. Michaux's most well-known book, 'Un Certain Plume,
was published in 1930. It contains fifteen sketches of his alter ego, Monsieur
Plume. His writing attracted other writers such as Andre Gide, Lawrence
Durrell, and Octavio Paz. From 1937 to 1939 Michaux edited the mystical
magazine 'Hermès'. Also in 1937, he held his first exhibition. During
the Second World War, Michaux lived in southern France, and he married Marie
Louise Ferdiere. After the death of his wife in a fire during 1948, Michaux
focused on his painting, and on taking drugs and writing about the experiences.
One
biography link
DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1929 ___ literary travel self Ecuador
WEB TEXT LINKS
good
extracts
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Ecuador: A Travel Journal
November 2005
THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
Please
email if you have any corrections, additions or comments. |
IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS:
1) The first line of basic information
may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different
names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or
uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown,
or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British'
a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was
compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts
were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if
they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates
and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with
caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are
only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies.
4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges,
and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising.
I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some
variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited
myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their
original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the
titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries. |