Literary Nonfiction. Translated from the French by Brian Evenson. Champollion loved the novels of Fenimore Cooper, in particular The Last of the Mohicans. Macé explores Champollion's twin interests: Egypt and "America's savage nations," his deciphering of the Rosetta stone and the Indians' deciphering of the forest. He finally follows Champollion to the Louvre where he set up the Egyptian galleries and saw Indians of the Osage tribe.

Author City: PARIS FRA

Géard Macé was born in Paris in 1946. He writes unclassifiable texts that cross the lines between poem, essay, dream, biography, literary criticism, anthropology, and history. In addition to his many books he has also translated authors like Giorgio Agamben, Umberto Saba, and Thomas De Quincey and is building a photographic oeuvre. His honors include the Prix Femina-Vacaresco (1980), Prix France Culture for our present volume, Le Dernier des Égyptiens (1989), and the Académie française's Grand Prix de Poésie for life achievement (2008).