H. Le Blanc

author

H. Le Blanc

d. 1887

Best known for a lively early-19th-century guide to neckwear, this French writer published under the name H. Le Blanc. His work mixes practical fashion advice with a playful sense of social history.

1 Audiobook

The Art of Tying the Cravat; Demonstrated in sixteen lessons

The Art of Tying the Cravat; Demonstrated in sixteen lessons

by H. Le Blanc

About the author

Writing as H. Le Blanc, Émile Marco de Saint-Hilaire was a 19th-century French author and feuilletonist. French-language reference sources identify him as Émile-Marc Hilaire, born in May 1796 in Versailles and deceased in November 1887.

He wrote widely, but readers in English are most likely to encounter him through The Art of Tying the Cravat (1828), a compact manual that explains a range of cravat styles and opens with a short history of the accessory. The Metropolitan Museum of Art credits that work to Émile Marco de Saint-Hilaire, published under the name H. Le Blanc.

Beyond this fashion curiosity, Saint-Hilaire was a prolific popular writer whose work also included historical and Napoleonic subjects. Even now, his name tends to surface through books that capture the style, manners, and everyday interests of 19th-century readers.