At the request of Max Waller, editor of La Jeune Belgique, Léon Bloy sent a copy of Le Désespéré to Iwan Gilkin at the beginning of 1887 for review. Gilkin did nothing with it. During the first quarter of 1890, Bloy attended a conference given by Henry Carton de Wiart on the Jeune-Belgique movement and Gilkin’s work. He was then able to examine closely La Damnation de l’artiste (1890), poems by Iwan Gilkin edited by Edmond Deman, testimony to the innovative work of the Brussels publisher. But Bloy fell out definitively with Carton de Wiart. Finally, on 18 October 1892, Bloy received Ténèbres (1892) by Gilkin, still edited by Deman. He then used the paper of this luxury edition of Gilkin’s “imbéciles” poems to make notes.