author
Frédéric Kohn-Abrest
1850–1893
A cosmopolitan journalist and travel writer, he turned reporting into vivid books about the politics and everyday life of late 19th-century Europe. Writing under the name Paul d’Abrest, he moved between Prague, Paris, Vienna, and the Balkans with a sharp eye for culture and public affairs.
2 Audiobooks
Un printemps en Bosnie
by Frédéric Kohn-Abrest
Zig-zags en Bulgarie
by Frédéric Kohn-Abrest
About the author
Born in Prague on January 4, 1850, Frédéric Kohn-Abrest — also known as Friedrich Kohn and by the pen name Paul d’Abrest — was a writer and journalist of Bohemian Jewish background who held French nationality. He studied at the Lycée Bonaparte in Paris and then devoted himself to journalism, building a career that crossed languages, borders, and political worlds.
He became known for reporting on European affairs and for books drawn from travel and observation. Sources available here connect him with works including Zig-zags en Bulgarie and Un printemps en Bosnie, which suggest the range of his interests in the Balkans as well as his taste for firsthand, scene-by-scene writing. He also worked on memoirs and literary pieces, showing a career that combined reportage, commentary, and editorial work.
Kohn-Abrest died in Vöslau, near Vienna, on July 25, 1893. Although he is not widely remembered today, the record that survives shows an energetic 19th-century man of letters whose journalism helped interpret a fast-changing Europe for his readers.