Victor Henri Rochefort, Marquis de Rochefort-Luçay
Henri Rochefort Marquis de Rochefort-Luçay | |
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Nadar | |
Born | Victor Henri Rochefort 30 January 1831 Paris, France |
Died | 30 June 1913 Aix-les-Bains, France | (aged 82)
Resting place | Montmartre Cemetery |
Occupation(s) | Journalist, politician, playwright |
Victor Henri Rochefort, Marquis de Rochefort-Luçay (30 January 1831 – 30 June 1913)[1] was a French writer of vaudevilles and politician. He was born in Paris and died in Aix-les-Bains.
Life
His father was a Legitimist noble who, as Edmond Rochefort, was well known as a writer of vaudevilles; his mother's views were republican. After experience as a medical student, a clerk at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, a playwright and a journalist, he joined the staff of Le Figaro in 1863; but a series of his articles, afterwards published as Les Français de la décadence[2] (3 vols., 1866–68), brought the paper into collision with the authorities and caused the termination of his engagement.[3]
In collaboration with different dramatists he had meanwhile written a long series of successful vaudevilles, which began with the Monsieur bien mis at the Folies Dramatiques in 1856. On leaving Le Figaro Rochefort determined to start a paper of his own, La Lanterne. The paper was seized on its eleventh appearance, and in August 1868 Rochefort was fined 10,000 francs, with a year's imprisonment.[3][full citation needed]
He then published his paper in Brussels, whence it was smuggled into France. Printed in French, English, Spanish, Italian and German, it went the round of Europe. After a second prosecution he fled to Belgium. A series of
In 1869, after two unsuccessful candidatures, he was returned to the Corps Législatif, (the then lower house of the French Parliament) by the first circonscription of Paris. He was arrested on the frontier, only to be almost immediately released, and forthwith took his seat.[5]
He renewed his onslaught on the
The
In spite of Victor Hugo's efforts on his behalf, he was transported to New Caledonia. In 1874, he escaped on board an American vessel to San Francisco. He lived in London and Geneva until the general amnesty permitted his return to France in 1880. In Geneva, he resumed the publication of La Lanterne, and in the Parisian papers articles constantly appeared from his pen.[5]
When at length, in 1880, the general amnesty permitted his return to Paris, he founded
The
Personal life
Henri had a long-standing relationship with editor/translator Anna-Catherine Strebinger, whom he married in May 1878.[6] Anna-Catherine is featured prominently as "Catherine" in Wanda von Sacher-Masoch's memoir Confessions de Ma Vie. Catherine did translations of many of the works of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. In her book, Wanda describes Catherine's relationship with Henri as being open, with Catherine openly taking many lovers.[citation needed]
His daughter, Noémie de Rochefort-Luçay, was a lifelong friend of British suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, having met whilst at École Normale de Neuilly in Paris. She later married Swiss artist Auguste Frederic Dufaux, known as Frederic, and had three children including aviation pioneers Henri Dufaux and Armand Dufaux. Henri Rochefort financially supported his grandson's initial aeronautic experiments. Frederic Dufaux sculpted the bust for his father-in-law's grave at the Montmartre cemetery in Paris.
Works
Besides his plays and articles in the journals Rochefort published several separate works, among them being:
- Les Petits Mystères de l'Hôtel des Ventes (1862), a collection of his art criticisms
- Les Dépravés (Geneva, 1882)
- Les Naufrageurs (1876)
- L'Évadé (1883)
- Napoléon dernier (3 vols., 1884)
- Les Aventures de ma vie (5 vols., 1896)[5]
- The adventures of my life (2 vol. translation), E. Arnold, 1896
Distinctions
A street in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, Rue Henri Rochefort, is named after him.
References
- ^ Who's Who 1914, p. xxiii
- ^ Henri Rochefort (1885). Les Français de la décadence. V. Havard.
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 526.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 526–527.
- ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm 1911, p. 527.
- ^ NY Daily Tribune, May 9 1878,( PDF)
Works cited
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
General sources
- Roger Lawrence Williams, Henri Rochefort, Prince of the Gutter Press, Scribner, 1966.
- The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Police by Alex Butterworth (Pantheon Books, 2010)