Gourmont, Rémy de

Gourmont, Rémy de

(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.