Antoine Denat was born in Castres, Languedoc, France and obtained a Licence-des-Lettres from the University of Toulouse, a Diplome d'Études Supérieures from Paris and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Queensland. After his studies in France, he spent two years in the Dominican Novitiate at St Maximin, Provence. Later, he taught at a Catholic school, and joined the armed forces in 1939. He was captured at the beginning of the war and spent five years in German prisoner-of-war camps. Between 1946 and 1949 he lived in Romania, where he lectured at the University of Iassy, and later became the Director of the Institut Français of Timisoara. From 1949, he lectured at the universities of Queensland, New England and Sydney, and, from 1963, he became Senior Lecturer and later Reader at the University of Melbourne. His main interest was in the area of modern and contemporary French poetry and he published many articles in this area. He delivered public lectures on literature and he corresponded for twenty years in sonnet form with the Marseilles poet Louis Brauquier. A gifted amateur actor, he participated, mainly in comic roles, in theatre productions of plays by Molire, Pagnol, Ionesco and Aymé organised by Alliance Française.
