Paul Valery

Paul Valery (1871-1945) had a quiet life by many standards, but in one respect is was exemplary, even legendary; he quickly made a reputation in little magazines, decided to stop writing verse when still only twenty, kept his silence for twenty years, then began again; and his first book of verse, published when he was forty-five, was his masterpiece La Jeune Parque (28 April, 1917).