Gustave Kahn

Born in Metz on December 21, 1859, Gustave Kahn became a French Symbolist poet, critic, and literary theorist whose work sat at the center of late 19th-century literary change. He studied in Paris and moved through the small-review world that helped new writing find its audience.

Kahn is closely linked with the rise of Symbolism and with the early development of vers libre, or free verse. He wrote poetry, essays, and criticism, and he also helped define what Symbolism was trying to do, especially in contrast to the Decadent movement. His reputation rests not just on his own poems, but on the energy he brought to the wider literary scene.

He died in Paris on September 5, 1936. Today he is remembered as both a creative writer and a persuasive advocate for new poetic forms, someone who helped open French poetry to a looser, more modern music.