Known above all as the author of the modern classic Black as I (1959), Griffin was a true man of the Renaissance. He fought in the French Resistance and served in the Air Force of the United States in the South Pacific during World War II, where he was blinded for years by accident, until he regained his vision in 1957. Later he became an acclaimed essayist and novelist, a remarkable portrait photographer and a renowned musicologist, expert in Gregorian chant. He taught at the University of Peace together with Father Dominique Pire, laureate with the Nobel Prize, and gave more than one thousand lectures in Europe, Canada and the United States. Previously, during his period of blindness, Griffin also wrote novels. Its sales success The Devil Rides Outside (1952) was a case that created jurisprudence after a controversial trial before the Supreme Court, which led to a decisive ruling against censorship. Two of his most important books were published posthumously: Street of the Seven Angels (2003), a satirical novel against censorship, and Scattered Shadows: A Memoir of Blindness and Vision (2004).