Hubert Nyssen

Hubert Nyssen studied at Free University of Brussels. The recorded working language is French and English. The field of work recorded is French poetry and French prose literature. Employment is recorded with University of Liège, University of Provence - Aix-Marseille I and Actes Sud. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Legion of Honour, Knight of the Walloon Merit, Honorary doctor of the University of Liège and Prix Littéraire Valery Larbaud.

• Born — 11 April 1925 • Birthplace — Brussels, Belgium • Died — 12 November 2011 • Place of death — Paradou, France • Occupation — Novelist Essayist Poet Publisher • Spouse — Christine Le Bœuf • Children — Françoise Nyssen

Hubert Nyssen grew up in Boitsfort (today a commune in Brussels) and settled in Provence in 1968. He became a naturalised French citizen in 1976. A novelist, diarist, essayist and poet, he was the author of numerous books. During his childhood in Brussels, under the German occupation, he was influenced by his grandfather who gave him a taste for intellectual culture. After his university studies at the Free University of Brussels, he founded an advertising company, which became one of the most prosperous in Belgium. At the same time, he ran his own cultural center in Brussels, spoke on the radio and published his first literary works. In 1978, breaking up with his past as a French businessman, he founded in Arles the publishing company Éditions Actes Sud with the help of his wife Christine Le Bœuf, a descendant of a rich family of Belgian businessmen, Henry Le Bœuf and Albert Thys. In this new life, his dispositions for business and his literary talents were soon to bear fruit, whereas at the time, setting up a publishing house in the south of France constituted an unprecedented audacity, all large French publishing houses being Parisian. It was a challenge and a real "cultural exception". Among his many editorial successes, he made known the American author Paul Auster in French translation and published in French the Swedish thriller trilogy Millennium. Nyssen was also a talented author and published more than forty works in the fields of novel, theater, poetry and essays. Doctor of Arts, he taught at the University of Provence and University of Liège. The University of Liège, which hosts its archives, the Nyssen Fund, appointed him Doctor honoris causa in 2003. In 2011, he was made Chevalier of the Order of the Mérite wallon. On Nyssen's death, the Argentinian writer Alberto Manguel paid tribute to him:

• 1973: Le Nom de l'arbre, Éditions Grasset, Passé-Présent n° 53, Babel n° 435. • 1979: La Mer traversée, Grasset, Prix Méridien. • 1982: Des arbres dans la tête, Grasset, Grand Prix du roman de la Société des gens de lettres. • 1983: Éléonore à Dresde, Actes Sud, Prix Valery-Larbaud, Prix Franz-Hellens. Babel n° 14. • 1995: Les Rois borgnes, Grasset, Prix de l'Académie française. J'ai Lu n° 2770. • 1989: Les Ruines de Rome, Grasset, Babel n° 134. • 1991: Les Belles Infidèles, Actes Sud (Polar Sud) • 1992: La Femme du botaniste, Actes Sud, Babel n° 317. • 1995: L'Italienne au rucher, Éditions Gallimard. Babel n° 664 under the title La leçon d'apiculture, 2004 • 1998: Le Bonheur de l'imposture, Actes Sud • 2000: Quand tu seras à Proust la guerre sera finie, Actes Sud • 2002: Zeg ou les Infortunes de la fiction, Actes Sud • 2004: Pavanes et Javas sur la tombe d'un professeur, Actes Sud • 2008: Les Déchirements, Actes Sud • 2009: L'Helpe mineure, Actes Sud • 2012: Dits et Inédits, Actes Sud

• 1969: Les Voies de l'écriture, Mercure de France, 1969. • 1972: L'Algérie, Arthaud, 1972. • 1981: Lecture d'Albert Cohen, Actes Sud • L'Éditeur et son double, Actes sud, Vol. I: 1988; vol II: 1990; vol. III: 1996. • 1993: Du texte au livre, les avatars du sens, Nathan • 1997: Éloge de la lecture, Les Grandes Conférences, Fides • 2002: Un Alechinsky peut en cacher un autre, Actes Sud • 2002: Variations sur les variations, Actes Sud • 2002: Sur les quatre claviers de mon petit orgue: lire, écrire, découvrir, éditer, Leméac / Actes Sud • 2004: Lira bien qui lira le dernier: lettre libertine sur la lecture, Labor / Espace de libertés. Babel n°705. • 2006: La Sagesse de l'éditeur, L'Œil neuf éditions • 2006: Neuf causeries promenades, Leméac / Actes Sud • 2007: Le mistral est dans l'escalier, journal de l'année 2006, Leméac / Actes Sud • 2008: L'Année des déchirements, journal de l'année 2007, Leméac / Actes Sud • 2009: Ce que me disent les choses, journal de l'année 2008, Leméac / Actes Sud • 2010: À l'ombre de mes propos, journal de l'année 2009, Actes Sud

• 1967: Préhistoire des estuaires, André de Rache • 1973: La Mémoire sous les mots, Grasset • 1977: Stèles pour soixante-treize petites mères, Saint-Germain-des-Près • 1982: De l'altérité des cimes en temps de crise, l'Aire • 1991: Anthologie personnelle, Actes Sud • Eros in trutina, Leméac / Actes Sud

• 2000: Mille ans sont comme un jour dans le ciel, Actes Sud • 2006: Le Monologue de la concubine, Actes Sud • 2008: L'Enterrement de Mozart + CD, Actes Sud / Musicatreize

• 1996: L'Étrange Guerre des fourmis, Actes Sud Junior • 1996: Le Boa cantor, Actes Sud Junior, 1996. Version + CD, 2003. • 1999: Un point c'est tout, Actes Sud Junior • L'Histoire du papillon qui faillit bien être épinglé + CD, Actes Sud Junior, 2002

• 2006: Pascal Durand (dir.), L'Écrivain et son double: Hubert Nyssen, Liège/Arles, CELIC, Actes Sud • 2012: Jacques De Decker, Le Dossier Hubert Nyssen, Brussels, Le Cri/Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises • 2013: Benoît Denis and Pascal Durand, « Postface, Éléments biographiques et Repères bibliographiques », in Hubert Nyssen, Le Nom de l'arbre, Brussels, Communauté française de Belgique, coll. Espace Nord, n° 316

Hubert Nyssen is recorded as having received Officer of the Legion of Honour, Knight of the Walloon Merit and Honorary doctor of the University of Liège.