born April 4, 1858, Bazoches-en-Houlmes, France
died Sept. 27, 1915, Paris
French novelist, poet, playwright, and philosopher.
He worked 10 years at the national library; his dismissal resulted from an allegedly unpatriotic article in the Mercure de France , a journal he had cofounded. A painful skin disease later kept him a semirecluse. One of the most intelligent critics from the Symbolist movement , he had a major role in disseminating its aesthetic doctrines. His 50 published volumes are mainly collections of essays.