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Howard Buten (July 28, 1950 – January 3, 2025) was an American author living in France. He was also a psychologist, a clown, and a violin player. Buten was the author of five novels, the first of which, entitled When I Was Five I Killed Myself, was published in 1981 and turned into a film under its French title Quand j'avais cinq ans je m'ai tué in 1994.
Biography
Buten was born in Detroit, Michigan, on July 28, 1950. As a young man, Buten encountered a child with autism and this sparked a lifelong interest in the disorder. He worked on autism as a researcher, clinical psychologist, therapist, and founder of a clinic for the autistic in Paris, France.
Buten was also a theatrical clown (graduate of Ringling Bros) with the stage name Buffo, who is quite well known in France. He got his start in acting at a very young age, re-enacting scenes from his favorite stories, along with his childhood friends/neighbors.
Buten's first and best known novel, When I Was Five I Killed Myself, is largely unknown in his home country, but has sold more than a million copies in France. He was made Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a prominent literary honor, in 1991.
Buten died on January 3, 2025, at the age of 74.
Works
- When I Was Five I Killed Myself [fr] (also published under the title Burt) (1981)
- Le Cœur sous le rouleau compresseur [fr] (1984)
- Monsieur Butterfly (1987)
- Il faudra bien te couvrir... (1989)
- Histoire de Rofo, clown (1991)
- C'était mieux avant (1994)
- Ces enfants qui ne viennent pas d'une autre planète (1995)
- Quand est-ce qu'on arrive? (2000)
- Il y a quelqu'un là-dedans, des autismes (2003)
- Buffo par Buten (2005)
- Through the Glass Wall: Journeys Into the Closed-Off Worlds of the Autistic (Bantam, 2004)
- I Understand that If Not Completely Satisfied I Will Be Issued a Full Refund (1996)
References
- Buffo, Buten & Howard Archived 2014-04-08 at the Wayback Machine, documentary 2009, Swissfilms, at artfilm.ch
- "Howard Buten, alias le clown Buffo, auteur de « Quand j'avais cinq ans, je m'ai tué », est mort". Le Monde. 5 January 2025. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
External links
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- 1950 births
- 2025 deaths
- 21st-century American psychologists
- Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
- American emigrants to France
- American male novelists
- 20th-century American novelists
- 20th-century American male writers
- American writers in French
- 21st-century American writers
- American clowns
- French clowns
- 20th-century American psychologists
- American novelist, 1950s birth stubs