Edmond About

Born in Dieuze, Lorraine, on February 14, 1828, Edmond About studied at the École Normale and later spent time at the French School at Athens. That stay helped inspire his early and much-discussed book La Grèce contemporaine, which brought him quick attention.

He went on to build a busy career as a novelist, publicist, and journalist. Among his best-known works are Tolla, Le Roi des montagnes (The King of the Mountains), and L'Homme à l'oreille cassée (The Man with the Broken Ear), books remembered for their energy, irony, and readability.

About also wrote for the press and became an important literary figure in France during the Second Empire and afterward. He died in Paris on January 16, 1885, leaving behind fiction and commentary that helped make him one of the more distinctive popular French writers of his time.