Blaise Cendrars

It is very possible that, in fact, we do not know anything about Blaise Cendrars. He is truly a man of mystery; a man with no roots, and a man with no country. The name ‘Blaise Cendrars’ is a creation, a pseudonym for Frédéric Louis Sauser (The name is a mixture of the words “braise” or ember, and “cendres” or ashes). When Sauser took on the name of Cendrars, he surrendered his former identity, including the background and history of the man once called Sauser. The following is thus an account of the life of Blaise Cendrars.

Blaise Cendrars was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds to a Scottish mother and a Swiss father on September 1st, 1887. At the age of 15, the young man was enrolled in a boarding school in Neuchatel, which he quickly abandoned and subsequently ran away to Russia. In Saint Petersburg, Cendrars took on an apprenticeship with a local Swiss watchmaker. Cendrars began to write while in Russia. The young man spent a great deal of time in the Imperial Library, where he read the works great travel writers such as Marco Polo. Cendrars had a habit of jotting his thoughts and feelings of particular passages down in the margins of the books he read, and such actions were quickly noticed by the Imperial librarian; A man only referred to as ‘R.R.’ in the reflections of Cendrars. R.R. encouraged the young Cendrars to pursue writing seriously, thus potentially saving the books of the Imperial Library from further graffiti. Cendrars wrote his first poem, “La Legende de Novgorod”, which was inspired by the sights and folklore of the Russian city just outside of Saint Petersburg. R.R., as a congratulatory gift for Cendrars, translated the poem into Russian.

In 1907, Cendrars returned to Switzerland to pursue a medical degree in Bern. He only stayed for three years; in 1910 Cendrars had moved to France where he adopted French citizenship. Cendrars travelled extensively during this period in his life, and his adventures were often sources of inspiration for his writing. In 1911 Cendrars took a year-long trip to New York City to visit a friend and by the end of his travel Cendrars had run out of money and had no place to stay. His spell as a homeless man inspired his long poem “Les Pâques à New York” which he signed for the first time as “Blaise Cendrars”. After his experiences in New York, Cendrars became obsessed with the pursuit of what he called ‘exotic experiences’ in his travels (which usually involved uncomfortable situations or a great deal of suffering); He saw such hardships in travel as inspiration for his writing.