Several important threads in the historical fabric of the early
avant-garde together are tied together in the person of Léon Halévy. He was the personal secretary of the proto-socialist
Claude-Henry Saint-Simon, and was with him on his deathbed; afterward,
he became involved with Romanticist subculture, writing many plays
including adaptations of novels by Georges Sand, Jules Janin, and
others. As such, he provided a social link between his close
collaborator and fellow Saint-Simonist Olinde Rodrigues, who coined the
term "avant-garde" in 1826 (see his anthology of self-taught proletarian
poets in the "Anthologies" tab), and his good friend Petrus Borel,
co-founder of the avant-garde Bouzingo group.
Around 1838 Halévy had a short-lived tenure as
editor of Figaro, the satirical journal that had earlier generated both
the name "Jeune-France" and "Bousingot" (détourned by the group to
become "Jeunes-France" and "Bouzingo").
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