RENE DOUMIC (1860-), French critic and man of letters, was born in Paris, and after a distinguished career at the Ecole Normale began to teach rhetoric at the College Stanislas. He was a contributor to the Moniteur, the Journal des Debats and the Revue bleue, but was best known as the independent and uncompromising literary critic of the Revue des Deux Mondes. His works include: Elements d'histoire litteraire (1888); Portraits d'ecrivains (1892); De Scribe a Ibsen (1893); Ecrivains d'aujourd'hui (1894); Etudes sur la litterature franraise (5 vols., 1896-1905); Les Jeunes (1896); Essais sur le theatre contemporain (1897); Les Hommes et les idees du XIX e siecle (1903); and an edition of the Lettres d'Elvire a Lamartine (1905).