Froth on the Daydream

Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer.

He is best remembered for novels such as L’Écume des jours and L'Arrache-cœur. He is also known for highly controversial "criminal" fiction released under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan, and some of his songs (particularly the anti-war Le Déserteur).

Vian was also fascinated with jazz: he served as liaison for, among others, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis in Paris, wrote for several French jazz-reviews (Le Jazz Hot, Paris Jazz) and published numerous articles dealing with jazz both in the United States and in France.