Jean Rimbaud wrote most of his works in adolescence, giving up writing when he was just 20. His poems have been cited a major influence on artistic trends that followed in the 20th century including surrealism.
Born Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud on this day in 1894, he abandoned his formal education to run away to Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Here he wrote profusely, drank heavily, and followed an approach to writing which he described in letter to friends as a “long, immense and rational derangement of all the senses”.
He had a two-year romance with fellow poet Paul Verlaine, who abandoned his wife and young son to be with the younger man.
The two travelled from Paris to London, and then to Brussels. During a drunken argument Verlaine fired a pistol at Rimbaud, wounding his hand. Despite Rimbaud not wanting his lover to be charged with the offence, Verlaine ended up spending two years in prison where he re-converted to Catholicism.
After their separation Rimbaud travelled widely working as an explorer and merchant. but he never returned to writing. He visited the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), Cyprus, and Yemen. He died in 1891 aged just 37 having developed bone cancer.
Rimbaud was cited as a major influence by Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors, and Bob Dylan has also described him as significant influence.
Verlaine moved to England and became a teacher; he fell in love with one of his male students and returned to writing poems. He was heartbroken when the student died of typhus just a few years later.
Verlaine spent his final years plagued by drug addiction and alcoholism, spending his time in Paris cafes. Towards the end of his life there was a growing appreciation of his work and other writers, musicians and painters began to cite him as an influence. He died aged 51 in 1896.
The poet’s turbulent relationship was depicted in the film Total Eclipse with Leonardo Di Caprio portraying Rimbaud and British actor David Thewlis playing Verlaine.
