French writer, journalist and socialite Jean Lorrain was BOTD in 1855. Born Paul Alexandre Deval in Fécamp, Normandy to a wealthy industrialist family, he was educated at the Lycée de Prince impérial at Vanves and the Collège Albert-le-Grand at Arcueil. After briefly volunteering for the Hussars, he began studying law in Paris in 1886, abandoning his studies to pursue a writing career. Settling in the bohemian neighbourhood of Montmartre, he began frequenting cafes and cabaret clubs, publishing his work under the pseudonym “Jean Lorrain” at the insistence of his family. He self-published his first collection of poems, Le Sang des dieux, in 1882, followed by the commercially published La Forêt bleue in 1883 and his novel Les Lépillier, a satirical roman-a-clef set in his hometown. Critically claimed for his short story collection Sonyeuse and his novel Monsieur de Bougrelon, he made his living as a columnist for Parisian newspaper Le Journal, becoming infamous for his witty, scabrous depictions of decadent high society. Embracing the life of a dandy, he appeared in public in outlandish costumes and make-up, usually drunk or under the influence of drugs, famously appearing at the Quat’z’Arts Ball wearing pantherskin underwear borrowed from a fairground wrestler. Loudly declaring his homosexuality, he became known as “The Ambassador from Sodom”, with a well-chronicled penchant for sailors and working-class toughs. His social circle included his patron Edmond de Goncourt; the actress Sarah Bernhardt, for whom he wrote a series of plays; and the courtesan Liane de Pougy, whom he helped advance in Parisian high society. He engaged in sustained feuds with many prominent literary figures including his former childhood friend Guy de Maupassant, Émile Zola, and celebrity homosexuals Robert Comte de Montesquiou, Lucien Daudet and Marcel Proust. In 1897, he published a newspaper column inferring a romantic relationship between Daudet and Proust. Enraged, the sickly Proust challenged Lorrain to a duel, which somehow both men survived. His reputation was severely damaged after being implicated in the 1903 trial of Jacques d’Adelswärd-Fersen, in which he was rumoured to be one of Fersen’s guests who took part in orgies with teenaged boys. Later that year, he was sued for libel by his former friend, the artist Jeanne Jacquemin, and was required to pay 50,000 francs in damages (the equivalent of €22 million in today’s currency). In later years, his health declined due to syphilis and morphine addiction, requiring stomach surgery after developing an addiction to ether. He took rest cures in a series of spa towns, writing a series of satirical articles about the 19th century wellness industry. In 1900, he retired with his mother to Nice, writing prolifically until his death in 1906, aged 50.