G. L. M. (Gustave Louis Maurice) Strauss

Born around 1807 at Trois-Rivières in Lower Canada, Gustave Louis Maurice Strauss spent much of his youth in Europe and studied in places including Hanover, Berlin, and Montpellier. Before settling into literary work in England, he had an unusually varied early life that included medical training, service as an assistant surgeon with the French army in Algiers, and periods of political trouble on the continent.

Strauss became a remarkably versatile Victorian man of letters. He wrote novels such as The Old Ledger, contributed journalism and criticism, and published works on European rulers, military history, and travel. He was also known in London as "the Old Bohemian" and is associated with the Savage Club, a sign of his place in lively literary society rather than the academic mainstream.

He died in Teddington, England, on September 2, 1887. Today he is remembered less as a single-book author than as a vivid example of the 19th-century professional writer: adaptable, curious, and always ready to turn experience into print.