Author, The Three Musketeers

Dumas is a renowned French writer of essays, short stories and novels, as well as plays and travelogues. He was born in on July 24, 1802, in Villers-Cotterêts, France, the grandson of a French nobleman and an enslaved Haitian woman, whose last name Dumas took. In 1822, Dumas moved to Paris where he worked as a scribe for the duc d’Orléans (later named King Louis Philippe) during the 1830 revolution. He is best known for his historical adventure novels The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, whose popularity gave him the money to build the Château de Monte Cristo in Port Marly, Yvelines, France. He spent much of his time writing at this home (now a museum) before debt forced him to sell it and live in exile for years. Dumas had a son, also named Alexandre, who became a writer as well. Dumas died in 1870 and was buried in Villers-Cotterêts. His body rests in the Panthéon in Paris, along with Émile Zola, Victor Hugo and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His works have been translated into 100 languages.