Paul Valéry

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) was a French poet, essayist, and thinker associated with Symbolism. Born in Sète, he studied law in Montpellier before moving to Paris, where he became close to Stéphane Mallarmé and other literary figures. After a long period focused largely on intellectual inquiry and private notebooks, he returned to poetry with *La Jeune Parque* (1917), followed by the celebrated meditation *Le Cimetière marin* (1920). Valéry also wrote influential essays on art, literature, and the mind, and served as a leading cultural voice in interwar France. He was elected to the Académie française in 1925.