Fargue, Léon-Paul

(1876-1947)

   poet

   Born in Paris, Léon-Paul Fargue was a disciple of Stéphanie Mallarmé and a student of the works of PAUL VERLAINE, FRANCIS JAMMES, and JULES LAFORGUE.

   He brought to his own poetry, prose, and free verse a sense of lyricism, fantasy, a faithfulness to past memories, and melancholy (Tancrède, 1895; Poèmes, 1912; Pour la musique, 1914). A friend of valéry larbaud and paul valéry, with whom he founded the revue Commerce (1923), he was attracted to surrealism but rejected direct confrontation in his writings. Master of a language rich in imagery, he celebrated his native city with a fervid tenderness (D'après Paris, 1932; Le Piéton de Paris, 1939) and evoked in his brilliant chronicles Parisian society, its artists and artisans, and life from the first years of the century to the immediate post-woRLD war II era (Haute solitude, 1941; Refuges, 1942; Lanterne magique, 1944; Méandres, 1947; Portraits de famille, 1947). See also toulet, paul-jean.