Auguste Gilbert de Voisins

Born in Paramé, near Saint-Malo, on September 7, 1877, Auguste Gilbert de Voisins was a French writer from an old aristocratic family. He wrote novels, poems, and essays, and became known in Paris literary circles in the early 20th century.

He is often remembered alongside Victor Segalen, with whom he shared both friendship and a taste for unusual journeys and intellectual adventure. That mix of refinement and risk seems to run through his life: records about him also note his interest in aeronautics, and a surviving 1908 photograph shows him in the balloon Archimède.

Gilbert de Voisins received the Grand Prix de Littérature de l’Académie française in 1926 and was later made a knight of the Legion of Honour. He died in Paris on December 8, 1939, leaving behind a body of work that still feels curious, exploratory, and slightly off the beaten path.