French Poet. Known as “the father of modern criticism.” Charles Baudelaire was born in Paris, where he lived most of his life. His father was a sixty-year-old ex-priest and widower when he married his mother orphan who was twenty-six. His father died in 1827. His stepfather, who became a senator, died in 1857. Baudelaire worshipped his mother. He was sent to boarding school. He studied at the College Royal in Lyon from 1832 to 1836 and Grand school in Paris from 1836 to 1839, from where he was expelled. At this time he became addicted to opium. He also contracted syphilis, which turned out to be lethal. During this period Baudelaire fell heavily into debt and he never finished his law studies. In 1841, he was sent on a trip to India, but he stopped off at Mauritius. On his return to Paris in 1842, he met Jeanne Duval, a woman who became his mistress and inspiration for his poem “Black Venus.” In the late 1840, he became involved in politics. He fought at the barricades during the revolution of 1848 and in the same year he also co-founded the journal “Le Salut Public.” He published his first novel, the autobiographical “La fanfario” in 1847. From 1852 to 1865 he was occupied in translating Edgar Allan Poe’s writings. He published “The Flowers of Evil” in 1857. Baudelaire wrote in “The Painter of Modern Life” in 1863. The remaining years of his life were darkened by despair and financial difficulties. He returned to Paris in 1866 from Brussels. He was already seriously ill and he stayed in a sanatorium. He died in a Paris clinic of aphasia and hemyplegia in his mother’s arms. (bio by: Jelena)  Family links:  Children:  Elmer Burton Mires (1889 – 1931)* *Calculated relationshipCause of death: Cancer