1855 births

Théophile_Cart

Théophile Cart (March 31, 1855 in Saint-Antoine-de-Breuilh - May 21, 1931 in Paris) was a French Esperantist professor and linguist.
Beginning in 1907, Cart was an editor for Lingvo Internacia.

Alexandre_Darracq

Alexandre Darracq (10 November 1855 – 1931) was a French investor, engineer, cycle manufacturer and automobile manufacturer. By 1904, Darracq was producing more than ten percent of all automobiles in France and he sold a substantial part of his business to British investors. He became fascinated by the possibilities of a rotary valve engine, put it into production and although it became a disaster for Darracq & Cie, persisted in installing it in Darracq products. He was obliged to retire in June 1912 aged 56. After the Armistice his name was dropped from his Suresnes factory's mass-produced products.
In 1906 he founded Società Anonima Italiana Darracq (S.A.I.D.) in Milan, Italy, which became [Società] Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (A.L.F.A.) in 1910 and eventually Alfa Romeo.

Jean_Lorrain

Jean Lorrain (9 August 1855 in Fécamp, Seine-Maritime – 30 June 1906), born Paul Alexandre Martin Duval, was a French poet and novelist of the Symbolist school.
Lorrain was a dedicated disciple of dandyism and spent much of his time amongst the fashionable artistic circles in France, particularly in the cafés and bars of Montmartre.He contributed to the satirical weekly Le Courrier français, and wrote a number of collections of verse, including La forêt bleue (1883) and L'ombre ardente, (1897). He is also remembered for his Decadent novels and short stories, such as Monsieur de Phocas (1901), Monsieur de Bougrelon (1897), and Histoires des masques (1900), as well as for one of his best stories, Sonyeuse, which he linked to portraits exhibited by Antonio de La Gándara in 1893. He also wrote the libretto to Pierre de Bréville's opera Éros vainqueur (1910).
Manuel Orazi Illustrated his Novella Ma petite ville in 1989.Lorrain was openly gay, often citing ancient Greece as noble heritage for homosexuality and became colloquially known as 'The Ambassador from Sodom'.Due to tubercular symptoms, he started using morphine, and then moved on to drinking ether, a habit he shared with Guy de Maupassant. Under the influence of ether Lorrain wrote several horror stories, but eventually the substance gave him stomach ulcers and health problems.

Gustave_Geffroy

Gustave Geffroy (1 June 1855 – 4 April 1926) was a French journalist, art critic, historian and novelist. He was one of the ten founding members of the literary organisation Académie Goncourt in 1900.
Geffroy is noted as one of the first historians of the Impressionist art movement with his publication of Histoire de l'impressionnisme in 1892. He knew and championed Monet, whom he met in 1886 in Belle-Île-en-Mer while travelling for research on prisons of the Second Empire. Monet introduced him to Cézanne, who painted his portrait in 1895.
He contributed to the newspaper La Justice from 15 January 1880, and came to know its founder, Georges Clemenceau, who in 1908 appointed him director of the Gobelins tapestry factory, a position he held until his death.
Geffroy was born and died in Paris; he is interred at the Cimetière de Montrouge. A street in Paris's 13th arrondissement, close to the Gobelins Manufactory, bears his name.

Giovanni_Pascoli

Giovanni Placido Agostino Pascoli (Italian: [dʒoˈvanni ˈpaskoli]; 31 December 1855 – 6 April 1912) was an Italian poet, classical scholar and an emblematic figure of Italian literature in the late nineteenth century. Alongside Gabriele D'Annunzio, he was one of the greatest Italian decadent poets.

John_Henry_Muirhead

John Henry Muirhead (28 April 1855 – 24 May 1940) was a Scottish philosopher best known for having initiated the Muirhead Library of Philosophy in 1890. He became the first person named to the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham in 1900.

Emile_Verhaeren

Émile Adolphe Gustave Verhaeren (Dutch: [vərˈɦaːrən]; 21 May 1855 – 27 November 1916) was a Belgian poet and art critic who wrote in the French language. He was one of the founders of the school of Symbolism and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on six occasions.