He worked as an English teacher and spent much of his life in relative poverty but was famed for his salons, occasional gatherings of intellectuals at his house on the rue de Rome for discussions of poetry, art and philosophy.
Pracoval ako učiteľ angličtiny a veľkú časť života prežil v relatívnej chudobe, ale bol známy svojimi salónmi, stretnutiami intelektuálov v jeho dome na Rue de Rome ako priestore pre diskusiu o literatúre a filozofii.