Jean-Henri Fabre

Born in France in 1823, Jean-Henri Fabre became a teacher, naturalist, and writer whose work centered on the lives of insects. He is best known for the Souvenirs entomologiques, a long-running series drawn from years of firsthand observation rather than laboratory experiment.

Fabre taught physics and chemistry and pursued natural history alongside his teaching and writing. His studies of beetles, wasps, bees, and many other small creatures made him widely admired for the care, patience, and vivid detail he brought to describing animal behavior.

He spent his later years in Sérignan in Provence, where he continued observing and writing until his death in 1915. Today he is remembered as one of the great popularizers of natural history, a writer who combined scientific attention with a strong sense of wonder.