author
Charles Berchon
A little-known French travel writer and photographer, best remembered for vivid early-1900s writing on Cuba. His surviving work mixes firsthand observation with a practical interest in the island’s economy, landscapes, and daily life.
1 Audiobook
Zes maanden op Cuba—Havana De Aarde en haar Volken, 1908
by Charles Berchon
About the author
Charles Berchon is an obscure figure, but the record that survives points to a French travel writer with a strong interest in Cuba. His best-known book, A travers Cuba: récit de voyage descriptif et économique, was published in 1910, and contemporary catalog records also connect him to Zes maanden op Cuba—Havana from 1908.
The front matter of A travers Cuba identifies him as a member of the Société de Géographie, which fits the book’s style: part travel narrative, part descriptive survey. Rather than writing as a novelist, he seems to have aimed to show readers how Cuba looked and worked, from city streets and landscapes to trade and everyday life.
Berchon also appears to have been a photographer. Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, preserves an album described as 73 photographs from his 1905 trip to Cuba, donated by the photographer himself in 1906. Beyond these traces, reliable biographical details are scarce, which makes his work feel all the more like a rare snapshot of its time.