Aloysius Bertrand (1807-1841) was the pseudonym of Louis-Jacques-Napoléon Bertrand, a writer whose Gaspard de la Nuit introduced the prose poem into French literature and was a source of inspiration to the Symbolist poets. Bertrand was born in Ceva, Piedmont, Italy. After his family settled in Dijon in 1815, he developed a consuming interest in the ancient Burgundian capital. Bertrand's contributions to a local paper won him the attention of Victor Hugo and Sainte-Beuve and, for a while, he lived in Paris but did not find success. Bertrand returned to Dijon, and to writing for local newspapers, He sold Gaspard in 1836, but it wasn't published until 1842, after its author had died from tuberculosis. The book was rediscovered by Baudelaire and Mallarmé and it has now become a classic of poetic and fantastic literature. poetry: Gaspard de la Nuit (2004), Gaspard de la Nuit Hardcover Collector's Edition (2004)