Émile Driant
| Émile Driant | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 11 September 1855 Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne, France |
| Died | 22 February 1916 Bois des Caures, Flabas (Meuse), France |
| Buried at | Moirey-Flabas-Crépion, France |
| Allegiance |
 France |
| Service/branch | French Army |
| Years of service | 1877–1906 1914–1916 |
| Rank | Lieutenant colonel |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
| Awards |
 Knight of the Légion d'honneur Officer of the Légion d'honneur Croix de guerre 1914–1918 Officier d'Académie.svg){kind=small} Commander of the Order of Glory Commander of the Order of Saint Stanislaus_Chevalier_ribbon.svg){kind=small} Knight of the Order of the Dragon of Annam Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy Knight of the Order of the Liberator Knight of the Royal Order of Cambodia Officer of the Royal Order of Cambodia Officer of the Order of St Alexander
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Émile Augustin Cyprien Driant (11 September 1855 – 22 February 1916) was a French writer, politician, and army officer. He was the first high-ranking casualty of the Battle of Verdun during World War I.
Born at Neufchâtel-sur-Aisne in the Picardy region, Driant graduated from the Saint-Cyr military academy and became an Army officer in 1877. Appointed to infantry, he joined the 4th Regiment of Zouaves in North Africa as a Captain in 1886. In 1888 Driant married the daughter of nationalist General Boulanger. He spent the years 1892–1896 as an instructor at the Saint-Cyr military academy, and from 1899–1905 commanded the 1st Battalion of Chasseurs.
He resigned his commission in 1906, as he was banned from achieving higher rank due to his controversial father-in-law and by his strong nationalist and Catholic sentiments. He devoted his time to journalism and politics and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a representative for Nancy in 1910. Driant devoted his efforts to strengthening France's defenses.
In 1888 Driant began writing his first guerre imaginaire ("imaginary war") novel, which he was to publish using the pseudonym "Capitaine Danrit". This was La Guerre de demain ("The War of Tomorrow"), comprising three stories which told the tale of: La Guerre en forteresse ("Fortress Warfare"), La Guerre en rase campagne ("War in Open Country"), and La Guerre en ballon ("Balloon Warfare"). The action begins with La Guerre en fortresse, as reports arrive of a surprise German attack upon France.
Driant gave his readers heroic episodes, great victories over the Germans, and in the 1192 pages of his Guerre fatale: France-Angleterre ("The Fatal War: France-England", 1902), the total defeat of the British by the French.
Driant possibly wrote more future-war novels than any other writer before 1914. He published so much fiction, and his stories were so long, that half a century later Pierre Versins said in his Encyclopédie de l'utopie et de la science fiction (1972) that the hundred pages of Chesney's Battle of Dorking were much more important and revealing "than the thousands of white pages soiled day after day by a national hero of France" (Driant had a postage stamp dedicated to him in 1956, Scott #788,Yvert et Tellier #1052).
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