Émile Verhaeren

The Belgian francophone poet Émile Verhaeren (May 21, 1855-November 27, 1916 ) was born at Sint-Amands in the Antwerp region of Belgium, the son of parents who worked in the textile industry. He published his first collection, Les Flamandes, in 1883. From the late 1880s, he traveled throughout Europe in Germany, Spain, England, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, experiences that would go on to inform his collection Les Villes tentaculaires. He met his spouse-to-be Marthe Massin in 1889, and they were married in 1891. In 1898, he moved to Paris, by which time his books were published by the Paris house Mercure de France. His oeuvre consists of plays, essays on art and politics, lectures, and poetry. He died in an accident while boarding a train after delivering a lecture to Belgian exiles in Rouen.