René Vallery-Radot

Born in Paris on October 1, 1853, René Vallery-Radot was a French writer and journalist. He studied law, but turned early toward literary life, publishing work in the 1870s and building a career that included journalism and editorial work.

He became closely linked with Louis Pasteur after marrying Pasteur’s daughter Marie-Louise. That family connection shaped his best-known achievement: writing the first substantial biography of Pasteur, a work that helped introduce a wide readership to the scientist’s life, character, and discoveries.

Vallery-Radot also moved in influential intellectual and political circles, serving for a time as secretary to François Buloz of the Revue des Deux Mondes and later to statesman Charles de Freycinet. He died in Paris on January 24, 1933, remembered above all as a lively literary witness to the age of Pasteur.