Swiss-French writer / 1887-1961 / originally Frédéric-Louis Sauser / adventurer and poet from Canton Neuchâtel / author of over 40 works using the pseudonym Blaise for braise (embers) and Cendrars for cendres (ash) as an allusion to a poet, who exhausts himself through his creativity and then rises again from the ashes like a phoenix / 1903 fled to Moscow and China, working as a peddler, beekeeper, juggler / 1914-1918 volunteer in the Foreign Legion, lost right hand in war / studied medicine and philosophy at the Univer­sity of Bern / came to know the avant-garde art scene in Paris in 1910, moved there permanently in 1950 / publication of adventure novels, 1925 Sutter’s Gold, 1926 Moravagine / publication also of verse with a religious tone, 1923 La Création du monde, a ballet with music by Darius Milhaud