Georges Chaulet

Georges Chaulet (25 January 1931-13 October 2012) was a French writer most famous for the series Fantômette, a series he created in 1961. His books were destined for young readers and Fantômette featured a female superhero named Fantômette for the first time in French literature. He is also the author of Les 4 As, a series created in 1957. He also released Le Petit Lion children's book series.

Chaulet was the son of an engineer father and trading mother. The family established in 1936 in Antony (Hauts-de-Seine), France. After his baccalaureate, Georges Chaulet contunued studying architecture at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. From 1952 to 1954, he served in the French Army in Germany. Then he returned to Antony, where he worked in the family coffee business with his parents, at the same time starting to write as an author. He would stay in Antony most of the time.

In 1957, Georges Chaulet proposed his first series, Les 4 As to Hachette, one of France biggest publishers. But Hachette refused to publish it, having just bought the rights to all of Enid Blyton's novels, most notably The Famous Five. Eventually Casterman, another of France main publishers, published Chaulet's work. There were 6 books in the series, followed by 43 volumes as a comics series narrated by Chaulet and drawn by François Craenhals. The series was the basis of the Belgian illustrated novel Les 4 As au collège by Chaulet and Craenhals first published in 1962. The novel was published by Casterman in the Relais series.

Strengthened by the success of Les 4 As, George Chaulet then proposed a new series titled Fantômette to Hachette, and this time the publishing house accepted. Forty-nine volumes of Fantômette were published from 1961 to 1987 in the Bibliothèque rose series. The Fantomette books were aimed at eight- to twelve-year-old girls. There are 52 books in the series. It also resulted in a comic book series by François Craenhals, and a 1993 live-action TV series starring Katia Sourzac and a cartoon series in 1998. In 2006, to celebrate the 150 years of the "Bibliothèque rose", and after an eighteen-year absence, Georges Chaulet wrote a new adventure of his favorite heroïne titled Le Retour de Fantômette.

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