Born in 1930 in Asan, Chungchongnam-do, Park Yee-mun received a BA and MA in French literature from Seoul National University. He also obtained a PhD in French literature from Sorbonne University in France and another PhD in Philosophy from the University of Southern California. After working as Professor of French literature at Ehwa University, Professor of Philosophy at Simmons College in Boston, and Visiting Professor at Mainz University in Germany, he retired from the Faculty of Humanities of the Pohang University of Science and Technology in 2000. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at Simmons College and Yonsei University. He received the Inchon Prize (for Humanities and Social Sciences) in 2006. His publications include such poetry collections as Charles Riverbank Covered With Snow, Dreams of Butterflies, and The Sound of Void as well as Poetry and Science, Margins of Philosophy, The Ordeal of Reason, The Passion of a Happy Nihilist, and The Story of Literature and Philosophy.