André Lemoyne

Born in 1822 in Saint-Jean-d’Angély, André Lemoyne first studied law and was admitted to the Paris bar in 1847. His working life then took some unexpected turns: he worked as a typographer, later joined the Didot publishing house as a proofreader and publicity manager, and in 1877 was appointed archivist at the École nationale des Arts décoratifs.

Lemoyne is remembered chiefly as a French poet. Contemporary notices place him among the poets of his time, and his career reflects the close ties between literature, printing, and publishing in 19th-century Paris.

He died in 1907. What makes his story especially appealing is the mix of practical book-world experience and literary ambition: he was not only a writer of poems, but also someone who spent much of his life inside the wider world of making, correcting, and preserving books.