Blaise Cendrars
- 1887-1961
Blaise Cendrars is the literary pseudonym of the Swiss-French writer Frédéric-Louis Sauser. „Frédéric-Louis Sauser spent his entire childhood on the move. Born on September 1, 1887, in the Swiss town of La Chaux-de-Fonds, little Fred — as his loved ones called him — was taken from place to place by his parents: a father who was an unlucky inventor, and a mother in fragile health. At various times he lived in Egypt, Naples, Basel, and was later sent to a boarding school in Germany. He ran away from there but was caught in Neuchâtel and forcibly enrolled in a business school. Yet instead of attending lectures, he would sail across the lake, read forbidden books, or simply retreat into solitude. He was sixteen. A wild, rebellious spirit burned within him. So he ran away again, leaving his family and homeland behind. Together with Rogovine, a merchant of questionable reputation, he traveled through the industrial cities of Germany and made his way to Russia. There, he witnessed snow soaked in blood — on that fateful day when the tsar's soldiers fired upon the people. Soon after, he boarded the Trans-Siberian train and headed to Asia as a trader. […] A seeker of adventure and a man madly in love with freedom, he never revealed to his contemporaries the hidden meaning behind his journeys, his adventures, and his idea of liberty. In 1961, he departed this world without a word. But in his place, his work continues to speak.“ Miriam Cendrars
