Frédéric Boutet

Born in Bourges on November 5, 1874, and later active in Paris, Frédéric Boutet was a French novelist and short-story writer known especially for fantastic fiction. Early in life he was drawn to literary cafés and the symbolist and decadent circles of the time, experiences that shaped the strange, stylish tone of his first books.

He began publishing in the late 1890s, with early collections such as Contes dans la nuit, Drames baroques et mélancoliques, and Les Victimes grimacent. He also wrote the short novels L’Homme sauvage and Julius Pingouin, then went on to publish a large body of tales and chronicles in newspapers including Le Matin, alongside fiction praised for its imagination and psychological insight.

Boutet produced nearly a thousand stories and columns over the course of his career. In 1929, the Société des gens de lettres awarded him the Prix du Président de la République for his body of work. He died in Arcachon on January 31, 1941.