Henry Jean-Marie Levet

Who is Henry Jean-Marie Levet?

Henry Jean-Marie Levet was a French diplomat.

Levet was a poet who worked in the French consular service in his late twenties but in his early twenties he was only a couple of years older than the more famous poet Leon-Paul Fargue, and they knew each other as young men in the café scene in Paris. Fargue related that Levet loved maps, compasses, and wore beautifully cut English-style suits. He was always willing to help out those with less money. In order to indulge his eagerness to travel, Levet joined the consular service and served in India, Vietnam, the Philippines and finally in Argentina. He sent his charming verses home to be published in popular journals. In the introduction to the French edition of Levet’s Poèmes, the great French poet Valery Larbaud relates that he read and memorized Levet’s verses, and hoped to meet him when he came back to France on leave.

Levet came home sooner than expected with a disease that left him unable to speak. He tried to recuperate on the Riviera, but his strength left him and he died soon after.

Fargue and Larbaud made a literary pilgrimage to Levet’s parents’ home in Montbrison, some five years after Levet’s demise.