Maurice Chappaz

[2] He thus had to patrol the Swiss borders and published several texts in the review Lettres which were collected in 1944 into Les Grandes Journées de Printemps hailed by Paul Eluard.

The book, noted by Charles-Albert Cingria, was a success (its author got awarded the Prix Rambert), yet, the poet was forced to rethink himself and was thrown into a deep despair.

Maurice Chappaz carried out still other numerous trips around the world : Laponia (1968), Paris (1968), Nepal and Tibet (1970), Mount Athos (1972), Lebanon (1974), Russia (1974 et 1979), China (1981), Quebec and New York (1990).

In the 1970s, the press and the Valaisian population were divided over the publishing of his book Les Maquereaux des cimes blanches (The Mackerels of the White Ridges), which is a pamphlet against the tourist industry that wreaks havoc in the genuine Valais.

Then he published poems alternating between the burlesque and a deathly tone (A rire et à mourir, 1983), he began a 6000 pages Journal, held continuously from 1981 to 1987, and wrote a tale and poetical prose dealing with mourning (Octobre 79 and Le Livre de C., 1986).

Eager to publish his wife Corinna Bille's unpublished writings, left behind at her death, and taking over the translation from Virgil for éditions Gallimard (1987) and Theocritus' Idylls (1992), he drafted a picture of the Alpine ancient civilization in Valais-Tibet (2000).