HENRI CAZALIS (1840-1909), French poet and man of letters, was born at Cormeilles-en-Parisis (Seine-et-Oise) in 1840. He wrote under the pseudonyms of Jean Caselli and Jean Lahor. His works include: Chants populaires de l'Italie (1865); Vita tristis, Reveries fantastiques, Romances sans musique (1865); Le Livre du neant (1872); Henry Regnault, sa vie et son c uvre(1872); L'Illusion (1875-1893); Melancholia (1878); Cantique des cantiques (1885); Les Quatrains d'Al-Gazali (1896); William Morris (1897). The author of the Livre du neant has a predilection for gloomy subjects and especially for pictures of death. His oriental habits of thought earned for him the title of the "Hindou du Parnasse contemporain." He died in July 1909.
See a notice by P. Bourget in Anthologie des poetes fr. du XIXe siècle (1887-1888); J. Lemaitre, Les Contemporains (1889); E. Faguet in the Revue hleue (October 1893).