by Scott Edward Anderson



Arthur Rimbaud, the visionary 19th Century French poet, was a classic young literary success story: discovered in his teens, celebrated by the literati of his time, some of whom -- literally -- fell in love with him; one of whom shot him in a pique of passion.

In his “Lettre du Voyant” (Letter of the Seer), Rimbaud explained, “I say that one must be a seer, make oneself a seer. The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses. Every form of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he consumes all the poisons in him, and keeps only their quintessence.” He was 16 years old ...