VIELÉ-GRIFFIN, Francis [1864-1937] -- American expatriate poet

Was brought by his mother at age nine to France following her divorce from his father. He never left. His parents had one of those spectacularly incendiary divorces, with infidelity, counter-infidelity, and bitter recriminations -- all played out in the popular press. In France, he changed his name and became an important figure in the French Symbolist movement. He is much more well known in France than here in America, perhaps because of a lack of an adequate translation of his work to English.

His wife, writing in the 1909 book of her husband's sister, Kathlyne Knickerbocker Vielé, Vielé, 1659-1909, Two Hundreds and Fifty Years with a Dutch Family of New York (subscription required for viewing), had this to say:

Egbert L. Vielé, Jr., went with his mother to France when only nine years of age and has remained there ever since, marrying a Frenchwoman. He was educated in the foremost educational institutions of Paris, notably the College of St. Stanislaus--carrying off in one year as many as eleven prizes. As he grew older he assumed the name of his maternal grandfather in addition to his father's surname. He was born in Norfolk, Va., in April, 1863, while his father was Military Governor of that city. Vielé-Griffin is virtually a Frenchman and has devoted his life to the career of literateur and journalist. He is one of the few Americans who has received for his poetry the ribbon of the Legion of Honor. He is editor of the "Mercure de France," a periodical founded in 1672, which was once conducted by Marmontel, and is now the exponent of all that is modern in thought and art. Extracts from an article on Vielé-Griffin and his work by "M. A. V.," once printed in the N. Y. Evening Post, will no doubt be of interest to all who claim relationship with this talented man[...]

Our country has of late years sent to Paris many students of painting who have quickly won distinction, but M. Vielé-Griffin is probably the first American who has been termed "of all French poets of the present day the poet who is mostly truly French." [M.A.V]

1909

• Parent: ¤VIELÉ, Egbert Ludovicus, General [1825-1902] American military officer and engineer
• Parent: ¤GRIFFIN, Teresa [1832-1906] American author, activist
• Sibling: ¤VIELÉ, Kathlyne [1853-?] American genealogist and historian
• Sibling: ¤VIELÉ, Herman Knickerbocker [1856-1908] American novelist, playwright, author, artist
• Daughter: ¤VIELÉ, Emily [1865-?] American poet and novelist
• 5C1: ¤DAVIS, Roderic A., 2nd [?-?] Just for reference