Robert de Bonnières

Born in Paris on April 7, 1850, Robert de Bonnières de Wierre grew up partly in the Oise and was educated at the Collège Stanislas. During the Franco-Prussian War he volunteered for service before returning to Paris, where he gave up a planned legal or diplomatic path to devote himself to literature.

He became known as a poet, novelist, journalist, and literary critic. Bonnières contributed to the Parnasse contemporain and later wrote for major French newspapers and reviews including Le Gaulois, Le Figaro, Gil Blas, and Revue des deux Mondes, sometimes using pseudonyms. His three-volume Mémoires d’aujourd’hui is remembered as an especially valuable window into the literary world of his time.

Travel and the arts shaped his writing. A long journey in India inspired his 1886 novel Le Baiser de Maïna, and his Paris home was a meeting place for writers, painters, and musicians. He was closely connected to the cultural scene around figures such as Anatole France and Guy de Maupassant, and he also wrote for music, including a libretto for Vincent d'Indy. He died in Paris on April 7, 1905.