Horace Raisson

Born in Paris on August 24, 1798, Horace-Napoléon Raisson was a French journalist and writer who also died in Paris, on June 9, 1854. He wrote across a wide range of subjects, which helps explain why his work still feels like a window into everyday life as well as public life in 19th-century France.

Library and reference sources connect him with dozens of publications, including manuals of etiquette and social behavior, works on gastronomy and domestic life, and popular histories such as books on Napoleon, the Paris National Guard, and the police of Paris. That mix of practical advice, wit, and historical storytelling seems to have been a hallmark of his career.

Raisson is also remembered in literary history because some early commercial works by Honoré de Balzac were published under his name. A surviving portrait by Eugène Delacroix adds another small but vivid detail to his story: he was clearly well placed in the artistic and literary circles of his time.