Paul Anthelme Bourde (23 May 1851 â€" 27 October 1914) was a French
journalist, author and colonial administrator. Self-taught, he became
a respected contributor to Le Temps, writing on a broad range of
subjects. He was hostile to the poets associated with the Decadent
movement and positive about colonial enterprises. He did much to
improve agriculture, particularly the cultivation of olives, in
Tunisia.Paul Anthelme Bourde was born at Voissant, Isère, on 23 May
1851. His father was a deputy sergeant in the Savoy customs. After
Savoy was annexed by France in 1860, the family moved to northern
France near the Belgian border, where Bourde studied at the local
school in Harcy. He moved on to the Petit Séminaire of Charleville,
where he was a classmate of Arthur Rimbaud and the future novelist
Jules Mary.[1] He was expelled from the séminaire in 1866 for having
planned with his friends to escape and travel to Abyssinia to search
for the sources of the Nile. Rimbaud took the plan seriously and began
to learn the Amharic language.[2][a]For a while Bourde undertook farm
work in the Bugey region, where his parents had retired. He then took
a job in Lyon, where he met the poet Josephin Soulary, the curator of
the library. Soulary helped him move to Paris, where despite being
self-taught he wanted to become a journalist. At first he struggled to
make a living. When the Franco-Prussian War (1870â€"71) was declared
he had to join the National Guard to avoid starvation.[1] Bourde's
first publication, under the pseudonym of "Paul Delion", was a violent
attack on the members of the Commune and the Central Committee
published by Alphonse Lemerre in 1871.[2] By chance he met the chemist
Marcellin Berthelot, who helped him get work at the Parisian newspaper
Le Temps. In 1879 Le Temps chose him to accompany a parliamentary
mission to Algeria. His account of this trip established his
reputation as a journalist and a colonial publicist.[1]
journalist, author and colonial administrator. Self-taught, he became
a respected contributor to Le Temps, writing on a broad range of
subjects. He was hostile to the poets associated with the Decadent
movement and positive about colonial enterprises. He did much to
improve agriculture, particularly the cultivation of olives, in
Tunisia.Paul Anthelme Bourde was born at Voissant, Isère, on 23 May
1851. His father was a deputy sergeant in the Savoy customs. After
Savoy was annexed by France in 1860, the family moved to northern
France near the Belgian border, where Bourde studied at the local
school in Harcy. He moved on to the Petit Séminaire of Charleville,
where he was a classmate of Arthur Rimbaud and the future novelist
Jules Mary.[1] He was expelled from the séminaire in 1866 for having
planned with his friends to escape and travel to Abyssinia to search
for the sources of the Nile. Rimbaud took the plan seriously and began
to learn the Amharic language.[2][a]For a while Bourde undertook farm
work in the Bugey region, where his parents had retired. He then took
a job in Lyon, where he met the poet Josephin Soulary, the curator of
the library. Soulary helped him move to Paris, where despite being
self-taught he wanted to become a journalist. At first he struggled to
make a living. When the Franco-Prussian War (1870â€"71) was declared
he had to join the National Guard to avoid starvation.[1] Bourde's
first publication, under the pseudonym of "Paul Delion", was a violent
attack on the members of the Commune and the Central Committee
published by Alphonse Lemerre in 1871.[2] By chance he met the chemist
Marcellin Berthelot, who helped him get work at the Parisian newspaper
Le Temps. In 1879 Le Temps chose him to accompany a parliamentary
mission to Algeria. His account of this trip established his
reputation as a journalist and a colonial publicist.[1]
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