Michel Butor was born on September 14, 1926 in Mons-en-Baroeul, France. He is a writer, known for The Modification (1970), L'enchantement (1974) and Balkan baroque (1999).
In 2013 the Académie Française awarded him its Grand Prix for his life's work.
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He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne; his thesis concerned mathematics and the idea of necessity. After failing the exam that would have allowed him to teach philosophy in college, he began a nomadic career as a teacher of French language and literature in Egypt, Greece and Great Britain.