François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) was born in Saint-Malo, on the northern coast of Brittany, the youngest son of an aristocratic family. Long recognized as one of the first French Romantics, Chateaubriand was also a historian, diplomat, and staunch defender of the freedom of the press. He is best remembered for his posthumously published
Memoirs from Beyond the Grave.
Alex Andriesse's essays and poems have appeared in
Granta,
Review of Contemporary Fiction, and
Literary Imagination. His translations include Roberto Bazlen's
Notes Without a Text and Other Writings and François-René de Chateaubriand's
Memoirs from Beyond the Grave: 1768-1800 and
1800-15, both of which are also available from NYRB Classics. He lives in the Netherlands.