Napoléon Hayard

Born Napoléon-Ferdinand Hayard in Remicourt, in the Marne, he later became known as Léon Hayard and built a reputation in Paris as a publisher, songwriter, and famously energetic street bookseller. He was active in the world of cheap print and popular culture, and was nicknamed "the emperor of the hawkers" for his prominence among Parisian book peddlers.

Hayard is most often remembered today for his Dictionnaire d'argot-français, a compact but vivid guide to slang that preserves the flavor of spoken French from his era. The book helped fix his place in literary and linguistic history, even though his career also stretched into popular songs, pamphlets, and political or satirical publishing.

He died in Paris in 1903. Though not a household name now, his work offers a direct window into the language of the street and the lively, fast-moving print culture of fin-de-siècle France.