Boris Vian was a French polymath remembered mainly for his novels, above all Froth on the Daydream, a surreal love story full of invented words. Under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan he also wrote crime parodies that caused controversy on release. Vian was an important figure in French jazz, acting as a liaison in Paris for Duke Ellington and Miles Davis and writing for jazz reviews, and his anti-war song Le Déserteur was popular in his lifetime. He died in 1959.
