A. de Ville D'Avray

A. de Ville D'Avray is the credited creator of Voyage dans la lune avant 1900, a French illustrated children's book published around 1892. Reliable library and exhibition notes describe it as an unusual picture book made up largely of colorful lithographs based on the author's designs, and some modern commentators regard it as a very early example of science fiction for young readers.

Very little biographical information about the author has survived. One exhibition source notes that almost nothing is known about A. de Ville D'Avray, beyond a remark in the book's preface saying it was made for the author's children, "sheet by sheet during the long evenings of winter."

That scarcity of detail makes the work itself especially memorable. The story follows a fantastic lunar journey filled with comic invention, monsters, and dreamlike adventure, giving today's listeners and readers a glimpse of the bold visual imagination that helped shape some of the earliest fantastic fiction.