Camille Pelletan was the son of the publicist and politician Eugène Pelletan (1813-1884). A journalist for the Rappel and La Tribune, he fiercely opposed the Imperial regime and later became an ardently intransigent defender of the Republic alongside Clémenceau. A Deputy, Senator, and eventually a Cabinet Minister, he was a true poetry buff who had been close to the Parnassians in his youth. A friend of Mérat and of Valade, whose books he wrote forewords for, he was part of literary bohemian circles who attended the "nasty little men's" dinners and contibuted to Émile Blémont's journal, La Renaissance littéraire et artistique.