REGNIER, HENRI(-FRANCOIS-JOSEPH) DE

born Dec. 28, 1864, Honfleur, Fr. died May 23, 1936, Paris foremost French poet of the first decade of the 20th century. Born of an old Norman family, Rgnier began to prepare for a career as a diplomat, but while studying law in Paris he came under the influence of the Symbolist poets and published his first volume of poems, Lendemains (Tomorrows), in 1885. Other volumes followed: Les Jeux rustiques et divins (1897; GamesTough and Divine), Les Mdailles d'argile (1900; Clay Medals), and La Sandale aile (1906; The Winged Sandal). In 1896 Rgnier married Marie de Heredia, daughter of an eminent poet, Jos Mara de Heredia. She later became a poet in her own right, publishing under the name of Grard d'Houville. Influenced by his father-in-law, Rgnier abandoned his earlier free and relatively uncontrolled writing style in favour of more classical forms. For his themes, however, he continued to draw on the concerns of the Symbolists. He also wrote a number of novels, generally evoking a time and place in the past, particularly 14th- and 18th-century Italy and France: La Double Matresse (1900), La Peur de l'amour (1907; Fear of Love), La Pcheresse (1912; The Sinner), and Le Voyage d'amour (1930). A man of aristocratic bearing and tastes, Rgnier became an important figure in French intellectual society in the years following the turn of the century. In 1911 he was elected to the Acadmie Franaise.