Jean-Pierre Brisset
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jean-Pierre Brisset | |
|---|---|
 The Prince of Thinkers welcomed and applauded in Paris (1909). | |
| Born | 30 October 1837 |
| Died | 2 September 1919 (aged 81) |
| Resting place | La Ferté Macé |
| Other names | The Prince of Thinkers |
| Citizenship | French |
| Occupation | writer |
Jean-Pierre Brisset (30 October 1837 – 2 September 1919) was a French outsider writer.
Born into a farming family of La Sauvagère, Brisset was an autodidact. Having left school at age twelve to help on the family farm, he apprenticed as a pastry chef in Paris three years later. In 1855, he enlisted in the army for seven years and fought in the Crimean War. In 1859, during the war in Italy against Austria, he was wounded at the Battle of Magenta and taken prisoner. During the Franco-Prussian War, he was a second lieutenant in the 50e régiment d'infanterie de ligne. Taken prisoner again, he was sent to Magdeburg in Saxony, where he learned German.
In 1871, he published La natation ou l'art de nager appris seul en moins d'une heure (Learning the art of swimming alone in less than an hour), then resigned from the Army and moved to Marseille. Here he filed a patent for the "airlift swimming trunks and belt with a double compensatory reservoir". This commercial endeavor was a complete failure. He returned to Magdeburg, where he earned his living as a language teacher, developing a method for learning French, which he self-published in 1874.
Brisset became stationmaster at the railway station of Angers, and later of L'Aigle. After publishing another book on the French language, he undertook his major philosophical work, which contended that humans were descended from frogs. Brisset supported his contention by comparing the French and frog languages – deriving, for example, "logement" (dwelling) from "l'eau" (water). He was serious about his "morosophy", and authored a number of books and pamphlets putting forth his case, which he had printed and distributed at his own expense.
In 1912, novelist Jules Romains, who had obtained copies of God's Mystery and The Human Origins, set up, with the help of fellow hoaxers, a rigged election for a "Prince of Thinkers". Unsurprisingly, Brisset got elected. The Election Committee then called Brisset to Paris in 1913, where he was received and acclaimed with great pomp. He partook in several ceremonies and a banquet and uttered emotional words of thanks for this unexpected late recognition of his work. Newspapers exposed the hoax the next day.
In 1919, Brisset died, aged 81, at La Ferté-Macé.[1]
