Paul Valéry

Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (Sète, October 30, 1871 - Paris, July 20, 1945) was a French writer, poet, and philosopher. The son of Barthélemy, a customs inspector of Corsican origin, and Fanny Grassi, from Genoa, daughter of the consul of the Kingdom of Sardinia in Sète, Valéry studied in Sète and Montpellier. In 1892, he experienced a profound existential crisis in Genoa, marking the beginning of his mental life. He moved to Paris in 1894, working at the Ministry of War. Married in 1900, he devoted himself to self-knowledge. After World War I, he returned to poetry with works such as "La Jeune Parque" (1917) and "Le Cimetière marin" (1920). He was a prominent figure in literature, president of the French Pen Club, and a member of the Académie française in 1925. His profound reflection is reflected in works like "Introduction to the Method of Leonardo da Vinci". He died in 1945, and his Cahiers, diaries of thoughts, were published posthumously. His correspondence and manuscripts are preserved in the National Library of France and the Pompidou Center.