Valery Larbaud
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He was born in Vichy, only child of a pharmacist. His father died when he was 8, and he was brought up by his mother and aunt. His father had been owner of the Vichy Saint-Yorre mineral water springs, and the family fortune assured him an easy life. He travelled Europe in style. On luxury liners and the Orient Express he carried off the dandy role, with spa visits to nurse fragile health.
His Fermina Marquez, on calf love and sometimes compared with Alain-Fournier' s Grand Meaulnes, had some prix Goncourt votes in 1911.
He spoke English, Italian and Spanish. In France he helped translate and popularise Samuel Butler, as well as James Joyce whose Ulysses was translated by Auguste Morel (1924-1929) under Larbaud's supervision.
At home in Vichy, he saw as friends Charles-Louis Philippe, André Gide, Léon-Paul Fargue and Jean Aubry, his future biographer. An attack of hemiplegia and aphasia in 1935 left him paralysed. Having spent his fortune, he had to sell his property and 15000 book library.
Georges Perec's character Bartlebooth is a cross between Melville's Bartleby and Larbaud's Barnabooth.
Works
- Poèmes par un riche amateur (1908) as A.O. Barnabooth.
- Fermina Marquez (1911)
- A.O. Barnabooth (1913)
- Enfantines (1918)
- Amants, heureux amants (1923)
- Pléiade edition (1957)
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