New-York tribune., 1922-10-22

IHE evening OF oapuTuay,
| Al h September "a, the friends and
/ W ~ admirers OF RAn,y do Gour-
~ most gathered at Coutances,
in Normandy, tho birthplace Of the
author. to witness performance OF
"LOmbre dune femmc,' one-act play,
which he had written In days past
for the Comedie FRANCHISE. On the
| following day they assembled for the
unveiling OF the bust Of Remy by Nine.
Suzanne de Gourmont. Encofnin in his
honor are to be read in all the Paris
press.
Gourmont was born OF an old Nor
man family in 1858. Arriving in Paris
in 1883, he secured an appointments as
librarian in the Bibliothaque Nationale.
For number Of years his was soli-
tary existence. Surrounded by literary
c6nacles, he frequented mono Of them.
His face was not to be seen at the
| Voltaire, the Chat Noir or the Nou-
velle Athanes. His signature never
| figured in the "Lutace," the Vogue"
the "Dacadent," the "symboliste," the
"Pl6iade" organs Of the Young France
Of the time. His writing Of che period
was exclusively reinuneratiye and con-
sisted in popular science notes and
papers for encyclopedias.
1t was not until 1889 that he made
his first literary connection. The
overnight periodicals Of the van
guard had gono their way into OBJ
livion when group OF writer's gath
cred about Alfred Valette and founded
the "Mercure de France" Their names
! may be worth recording. They were
Albert Aurier, Jean Courot, Louis
Al
Julien Leclercq, Ernest Raynaud,
names Of tho last three remain sig
nifcant. Gourmont. introduced by
Denise, his colleague of the Bibiio-
theque Rationale, very soon became
their guiding spirit, and in succeeding
years the "Mercure de France" was,
more than any others, his instrument.
villiers de 1'Isle Adam was his In
innate friand. With others he went
regularly TO the little apartment in
the Rue do Rome, where the magical
words of Mallarn1e illumined the aus
terity Of the poets rooms, He made
himself the theorist of the symbolist
poets. newly enfranchised from the
! metric laws Of the Parmassians. At
the home Of Mme de Couriares, who
1 brought to him the aid that tender
and Intelligent devotion can give, he
met Huysr,ans, Alfred Jarry. Jules de
Gautier and others with whom he ex-
changed philoaophic speculation and
novel, refreshing ideas.
In 1880 he published in the "Mereure''
lie joujou pstriotique," an article
whose tendencies ara manifest in the
/ title. He was relieved Of hia situation
| at the national library and, through
the influence of Mirbcau, than all pow
erful in the press, entered the editorial
rooms Of the Journal" Between the
"Mercure" and the Journal he had
sufficlenT renown to bring him invita-
tlons from all the great periodicals. Of
FarIs. AS he turned more and more
exclusively exc to writing, he took on,
| little by little, that aspect Of the cul-
tured Benedictine which characterized
| him to the end.
- his almost monastic lodgings in che
/ Rue des Saints-PAres were ornamented
/ only by books. These filled not alone
his study, but his dining room. his
kitchen and the corridor. He arose
early. folded about him q robe caught
on the breast by metal clasp, put on
ms monkish skull cap, rolled cigar
cite and went to his desk. At this
hour, not letter was opened nor a
newspaper read. The thought which
rs eAapofateu IN the evening and
/ rlpened in the night was kept free
from external contact His fine hand
/ ran rapidly over the paper, forming
clear, small characters. He never hest
tated, never blotted Everything which
went on the paper was already written
on his brain. His rare notes were
hieroglyphics. Before his death. for
example, he had completed mentally n
book called LA Physique des Moeurs. .
When his brother and his friend,
hunted fragments Of it for publication
1 by "Ilmprimerie Gourmontienne"
where quarterly bulletin Of his un-
published writings is issued by the
trends OF Gourmont), they found only
a lew sheets upon which were scribbled
| brief and cabalistic notes which thew
could not decipher. The work had died
! with him.
After his hours of work, prolonged
usually until the middle of the after
noon, he lunched, and then followed
the most delicious hours of the day.
He walked the quays. The artist rev.
elled III the beauties of the scene. the
philosopher meditated on the old
stones and the vestiges of the past.
the erudite, the intellectual. dipped
into the book-boxes to And old friends
and new loves. His books being too
! many for his apartment it is even said
that he had his own box on the uuays
through the complaisance of book