H. Emile (Henri Emile) Chevalier

Born in Châtillon-sur-Seine in 1828 and dying in Paris in 1879, Henri-Émile Chevalier was a French man of letters whose career stretched across journalism, fiction, translation, and public life. After the coup d'État of December 2, 1851, he went into exile and spent time in the United States and in Montreal.

During his years in North America, he contributed to the Courrier des États-Unis, wrote for democratic newspapers in Montreal, and served as librarian of the Institut canadien. That period shaped much of his work: he published numerous novels there, wrote on American geology, and later became especially known for adventure novels and serial fiction set around Indigenous peoples, Canada, and the wider North American frontier.

He returned to France after accepting the 1860 amnesty, continued publishing stories and novels, and also took part in civic life in Paris, serving on the municipal council and as a general councillor of the Seine. Among his noted works are Les Pieds noirs, La Huronne, Les Derniers Iroquois, and Les Souterrains du château de Maulnes, a novel inspired by a Burgundy estate he briefly inherited.