author
Georges Baudoux
1870–1949
A vivid early voice from New Caledonia, he turned life in the Pacific frontier into stories full of local color, hard travel, and lived experience. His writing draws on years spent close to the bush, the penal colony world, and Kanak traditions.
1 Audiobook
Légendes canaques
by Georges Baudoux
About the author
Born in Paris on March 28, 1870, Georges Baudoux spent most of his life in New Caledonia and died in Nouméa on July 5, 1949. He is widely described as one of the first true writers of New Caledonia, and he was also known as a prospector.
His work grew out of direct experience. Sources describe him as a man of the brousse as well as a careful observer of local life, and his writing often draws on the worlds of settlers, convicts, and Kanak communities.
Baudoux is especially remembered for books such as Légendes canaques and for memoir-like writing about the penal colony. What makes him stand out is the way he turned places and people that were often treated as background into the center of the story.