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John Antoine Nau

ジョン＝アントワーヌ・ノー

Jon Antowānu Nō

Aliases: Eugène Léon Édouard Torquet
Pen Names: John Antoine Nau（pen name）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1860-11-19 （San Francisco, California）
Died
1918-03-17 （Tréboul, Brittany） age 57
Nationality
American, French
Languages
French
Residence History
San Francisco → Le Havre → Paris → Haiti and West Indies → Colombia → Venezuela → New York → Martinique → San Raphael → Piriac → Carteret → Majorca → Tenerife → Andalusia → Saint Tropez → Algers → Corsica → Paris → Tréboul

Career

Occupations
poet, writer
Active Years
1897-1918

Awards

Prix Goncourt
1903
Work: Enemy Force
Organization: Académie Goncourt
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Enemy Force

1903 science fiction novel

The story of poet Philippe Veuly who awakens in an insane asylum, falls in love with a female inmate, becomes possessed by an alien being, is tortured, escapes, and travels the world. Darkly humorous and satirical science fiction.

insane asylumalien possessionsatirescience fiction
Translations
  • English translation (Black Coat Press, 2010)

Bibliography

  • Au seuil de l'espoir (1897)
  • Enemy Force (1903)
  • A Writer's Diary (1904, Dostoyevsky translation)
  • Blue Yesterdays (1904)
  • The Love Lender (1905)
  • La Gennia (1906)
  • Toward the Fairy Vivian (1908)
  • Christobal the Poet (1912)
  • Following the Seagulls (1914)

Translations by Author

  • A Writer's Diary (Dostoyevsky)

Translations of Works

  • Enemy Force English translation

Legacy

Known as the first Prix Goncourt winner, an outsider writer who produced a forgotten science fiction masterpiece. Many works remained unpublished at his death.

Trivia

  • Called Gino by family and friends
  • Nau means 'vessel' in Catalan, reflecting his love for the sea
  • Possibly homage to Haitian poet Ignace Nau
  • Blend of American birth (John) and French heritage (Antoine)