Writer, poet, literary critic, and translator, Valery Larbaud was born in Vichy in 1881 at N°36 Rue Montaret, above his father's chemist.
He was the only child of Nicolas Larbaud, inventor of the Saint-Yorre springs, who died when his son was only eight years old. He was raised by his mother and aunt between their three Bourbonnais properties: Valbois (near Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule), Saint-Yorre, and the villa on Avenue Victoria (now demolished) in Vichy.
From a young age, he devoted himself to "reading, that unpunished vice," developing a taste for travel and foreign languages. After graduating with a degree in Literature in 1908, he published his first poems that same year. This was followed by a series of novels and short stories, in addition to critiques, reviews and translations through which he endeavoured to promote, in France, the foreign writers he encountered during his many travels, and abroad, emerging or forgotten French authors.
In 1935, a stroke left him hemiplegic and aphasic. He was not forgotten by the literary world, though, which notably awarded him the Prix National des Lettres in 1952; many writers continued to visit him at his apartment, N°26 Avenue Victoria, where he died in 1957.
The media library houses the writer's office and library (14,000 books, 300 manuscripts, 9,000 letters, prints, photographs, etc.) presented in their original layout and classification.
Rates
Free access.
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