Arthur Symons was born in Milford Haven in 1865. He lived in London, where he frequented the Rhymers' Club, a group of writers who met at the Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street between 1891 and 1894. A friend of Ernest Dowson, Lionel Johnson and Wilde, he was an important influence on Yeats, with whom he shared lodgings for a time. He contributed to The Yellow Book and became editor of The Savoy. Symons was fluent in French and Italian; his The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899)was influential in introducing French Symbolism to English readers. He was also a translator of Baudelaire and Zola, and a leading critic. Symons died in 1945.