Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier
(1811-1872)
French poet and novelist
member (and founder?) of the 'Hashish Club'.
Gautier was a well known French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist and literary critic.He was born in Tarbes in the Hautes-Pyrénées departement, in the southwestern region of France, and he went to Paris as a small child. He had an idea of becoming a painter, but his inclinations turned him in the direction of poetry, and these ambitions were furthered on meeting Victor Hugo. He also received help from Honoré de Balzac, who gave him work at the Chronique de Paris.
Gautier belonged, along with the poet Charles Baudelaire and Dr. Jacques-Joseph Moreau, and many other literary and intellectual figures of the day, to a club dedicated to experimenting with drugs, principally hashish, called the Club des Hashischins. In an article published in Revue des Deux Mondes in 1846, Gautier detailed their experiments.
He visited Spain in 1840 in the wake of the civil war then being waged. He made a living from journalism although he found the work 'humiliating', seeking and finding escape in travel and poetry. He is remembered for the quote: "Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality."
Theophile Gautier died on October 23, 1872 and was interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris, France.
Gautier
Gautier wrote about the Hasish Club in an article entitled "Le Club des Hachichin" which was published in the Revue des Deux Mondes in February of 1846, recounting his visit in December, presumably of 1845. While he is often cited as the founder of the club, in his article his says he was attending their monthly "séances" for the first time this evening and it is clear that the others are sharing a familiar experience with him.
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