Comte de Lautréamont was the nom de plume of Isidore Lucien Ducasse, a French poet born in Uruguay on April 4, 1846. His only works, Les Chants de Maldoror and Poésies, had a major influence on modern arts and literature, particularly on the Surrealists and the Situationists. Ducasse passed away at the early age of 24 in Paris.

Though unknown during his short life, he became a cult poet posthumously, prefiguring the appearance of surrealism. His writings took the romantic cult of evil to unprecedented extremes and, while often classified among decadent poets, he is considered a precursor to surrealism.