Alexandre Chatrian

Alexandre Chatrian (18 December 1826 – 3 September 1890) was a French writer, associated with the region of Alsace-Lorraine. Almost all of his works were written jointly with Émile Erckmann under the name Erckmann-Chatrian.

He was born at Abreschviller (Moselle), in the locality known as le Grand Soldat (or Soldatenthal in German). From 1842 he studied in Phalsbourg (German Pfalzburg). During 1843 his father's glassworks went bankrupt, and the next year he went to Belgium for two years to earn a living as an accountant, after which he returned to Phalsbourg as a teacher.

He met Erckmann in 1847, and they became friends, spending the summer in the Vosges. While staying at Paris, Erckmann witnessed the Revolution of 1848: inspired, they founded a political club at Phalsbourg and a short-lived newsletter at Strasbourg. Their politics were republican and nationalist. At the start of the 1850s they began publishing in Le Démocrate du Rhin, expecting quick success, but after several years they became disillusioned. A play performed at Strasbourg in 1850, L'Alsace en 1814, was banned after just two performances. When he lost his teaching post, Erckmann persuaded him to move to Paris, where in 1852 he took a job as rail administrator the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Est.

Recognition came in 1859 and they became well known as fantasy writers under the pseudonym of Émile Erckmann-Chatrian. They moved together to Paris, where they lived close to the east railway station and returned frequently to Lorraine. In 1868 the publisher Hetzel bought exclusive rights to their work, and in May 1869 Chatrian purchased a property at Raincy. He began a relationship with Adélaïde Riberon, by whom he would have two sons. His father, Jean-Baptiste, died on 13 July 1870. He married Riberon in February 1871.

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