Hughes Richard (12 July 1934 – 28 March 2026) was a Swiss poet, writer, bookseller, and publisher. He wrote collections of poetry, as well as prose works and essays, mainly on Blaise Cendrars.
Biography
Hughes Richard was the son of Hermann Richard, a paysan-horloger (farmer and watchmaker), and Marie-Blanche née Devaux. In 1983 he married Gisèle Rumpe, daughter of Ernst Friedrich Rumpe, a merchant. After attending the teachers' college (école normale) in Porrentruy from 1951 to 1953, he worked as a primary school teacher from 1956 to 1959.
He lived in Paris from the end of 1959 to 1975. Thanks to Georges Haldas, he became secretary of the Prix Rencontre and a collaborator of the publishing house of the same name. He then worked as a bookseller in Neuchâtel, and from 1985 as a bookseller from his home in Les Ponts-de-Martel. He was also a publisher, notably of his friend Francis Giauque. From the 1960s he wrote collections of poetry, as well as prose works and essays, mainly on Blaise Cendrars. He was a member of the Institut jurassien des sciences, des lettres et des arts, and he received various literary prizes, including that of the canton of Bern several times.
Works Neiges, 1995 Ici, 1998 La saison haute, 1998 L'or de Chasseral, 2003 (with a list of works)
References
Bibliography Plans-Fixes (video), 1995 Écriture, 53, 1999, 240–242 La Radio suisse romande et le Jura 1950–2000, 2008, 52–53