Rimbaud - A Biography (Paperback)

"Superb...the single best work to read about this haunting and haunted poet."—Richard Howard, New York Times Book Review

Unknown beyond the avant-garde at the time of his death, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) has been one of the most destructive and liberating influences on twentieth-century culture. During his lifetime he was a bourgeois-baiting visionary, and the list of his known crimes is longer than the list of his published poems. But his posthumous career is even more astonishing: saint to symbolists and surrealists; poster child for anarchy and drug use; gay pioneer; a major influence on artists from Picasso to Bob Dylan. 16 pages of b/w illustrations.

"A marvelous biography....Robb elevates himself into the Hilary Spurling class."— Observer

"Robb's is a powerfully revisionist Rimbaud, written with exhilarating lucidity and historical acumen."—Hilary Spurling, Daily Telegraph

"Wit, elegance and thoroughness characterize this book...[a] fine new critical biography."—John Simon, Washington Post, 26 November 2000