Baudelaire, Charles Pierre

1821 - Charles Pierre Baudelaire was born 9th of April in Paris.

Baudelaire was educated in Lyon and at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris.

1839 - He decided to embark upon a literary career due to somewhat irregular life.

1845-1846 - His art reviews attracted immediate attention for the boldness with which he propounded his views.

1846-1847 - Acquainted with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, in which he found tales and poems.

1848 - He took part in the revolutionaries and was interested in republican politics.

1857 - Baudelaire produced his first and most famous volume of poems, Les Fleurs du mal ("The Flowers of Evil").

1858 - Wrote on Théophile Gautier (Revue contemporaine, September, 1858); various articles contributed to Eugene Crepet's Poètes francais.

1861 - Financial difficulties increased, particularly after his publisher Poulet Malassis went bankrupt.

1864 - Left Paris for Belgium, partly in the hope of selling the rights to his works.

1865 - Occupied with his translated versions of Poe's works.

1866 - Suffered a massive stroke and paralysis.

1867 - Spent his life in "maisons de santé" in Brussels and in Paris, where he died on 31st of August.

• "Any healthy man can go without food for two days - but now without poetry."
• "It is regrettable that, among the Rights of Man, the right of contradicting oneself has been forgotten."