Alfred Jarry

Born in Laval, France, in 1873, Alfred Jarry became one of the great literary troublemakers of his era. Britannica describes him as the creator of the grotesque satirical farce Ubu roi (1896), while Wikipedia notes that the play is often seen as a forerunner of Dada, Surrealism, Futurism, and later the Theatre of the Absurd.

Jarry was associated with Symbolist circles in Paris, but his writing refused to stay neatly in any one box. Alongside plays, he wrote novels, poems, and eccentric prose works, and he is also credited with coining the term and idea of "'pataphysics," his mock-scientific philosophy of imaginary solutions.

He died in Paris in 1907 at just 34, but his influence lasted far beyond his short life. Readers who come to him now usually find a writer who was funny, reckless, and far ahead of his time.