Adelheid Duvanel’s first works were published under the pseudonym Judith Januar, but most of her work was published posthumously, after 1996. Her work is often compared to that of Robert Walser.

Swiss writer Adelheid Duvanel was born in 1936 in Basel. After an apprenticeship as textile designer, she worked as an office employee. A disastrous marriage with the painter Joseph Duvanel interrupted Adelheid Duvanel’s own artistic work (writing as well as painting). Subject to mental problems her entire life, Adelheid Duvanel was found frozen to death in July 1996.