François Dupuis, Isidore Ducasse’s Swiss hotelier

Gérard Touzeau offers the first biography of the man who was the primary witness of Isidore Ducasse’s stay in Paris. François Dupuis, born in 1820 in the canton of Vaud, was indeed present for all the key moments of the last three years of the young poet’s life. We undoubtedly are indebted to him for memories of the “grand jeune homme brun” reported in 1890 by Léon Genonceaux. His Swiss origin probably inspired the author of the Chants de Maldoror to create the character Léman.