French visionary poet Arthur Rimbaud’s mother, she was born in Roche, now known as Chuffilly-Roche, close to Attigny. She was five when her mother died. She married Frédéric Rimbaud, an infantry officer who was frequently absent from home. Thus she raised their five children mostly on her own and in the Christian faith.
Arthur was their second child. After the birth of her youngest child, daughter Isabelle, in 1860, Captain Rimbaud never returned to the family home. After their separation, Mme Rimbaud called herself “Widow Rimbaud”. She died on 1 August 1907 at age 82 in Roche.
The life of Vitalie Rimbaud, her character, her story, and the relationship between her and her son Arthur have fascinated many authors, from Suzanne Briet to Claude Jeancolas, including Yves Bonnefoy, Pierre Michon, Xavier Grall, Yanny Hureaux, Julien Gracq and many others.
She played a major role in his life, including advancing funds for the first printing of Une saison en enfer, joining him in London at his request, writing to Paul Verlaine to try to comfort him when he spoke of committing suicide, and, maintaining a privileged link with Arthur Rimbaud when he lived in Africa. She was nicknamed by her son La mère Rimb, or Mother.
(Rimbaud’s mother, Vitalie Rimbaud, should not be confused with his first daughter Victorine-Pauline-Vitalie, born in 1857 who died in infancy, also called Vitalie Rimbaud, nor with the second, Jeanne Rosalie Vitalie, born in 1858 who died at the age of 17 in 1875, also called Vitalie Rimbaud and whose Journal de Vitalie has remained famous for understanding the youth of her older brother).
Link to Wikipedia biography