Harold Nicolson 
Paul Verlaine (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) [EPUB ebook] 

This 1921 biography of the controversial French poet was the first English monograph on the subject.  Nicolson not only reveals Verlaine through his poetry and his relationships, including his infamous affair with Rimbaud, but uses Verlaine as a kind of lens through which to observe what he calls ’the currents and cross-currents which swayed French poetry.’

Over de auteur

Sir Harold George Nicolson (1886-1968) was an English diplomat, author, and politician.  His open marriage to the writer Vita Sackville-West was scandalous at the time:  both pursued same-sex affairs but remained devoted to each other.  He was knighted in 1953.  His diaries are a treasure-trove for historians literary and otherwise.