Jean d' Esme

Jean d’Esme was the pen name of Jean D’Esmenard, a French writer and journalist born in Shanghai and raised in France. He built his reputation through travel writing, journalism, and novels set against the dramatic backdrops of Indochina, Africa, and other colonial worlds.

His major works include Thi-Bâ, fille d’Annam, Au dragon d’Annam, and Les Dieux rouges (1923), an adventurous and fantastical “lost world” novel later translated into English as The Red Gods. He also wrote biographies, children’s books, and documentary-style works, and remained active in journalism and filmmaking. He died in Nice in 1966.