Jean DÉsque

Born in 1879, Jean Louis De Esque was an American author and poet. Some of his books were published by Connoisseur's Press in Jersey City, New Jersey, and he also wrote under the pseudonym "Stewart."

He is best known now for Betelguese: A Trip Through Hell (1908), a long poem with a boldly imaginative premise: hell relocated to the star Betelgeuse. The work blends myth, satire, and a taste for the extravagant, which helps explain why it still catches the eye of curious modern readers.

De Esque died in 1956. He is not a widely famous literary figure, but his surviving work suggests a writer drawn to unusual forms and grand, eccentric visions.