*BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE*
_The celebrated friends who collaborated for fifty years under the title
of_ ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN _were natives of the department of the Meurthe, in
Alsace-Lorraine_. EMILE ERCKMANN _was born at Phalsbourg (now
Pfalzburg), on the 20th of May, 1822. His father was a bookseller; his
mother he lost early. He was educated at the grammar school of
Phalsbourg, and was a boarder there, growing up an intractable and idle
boy. At the age of twenty Erckmann went up to Paris to study law, but
he was inattentive to his work, and positively took fifteen years to
pass the necessary examinations; having done so, he made no further rise
of his profession. When he was twenty-five he suffered from a serious
illness, and during his convalescence, in Alsace, he turned his
attention to literature. At this moment there had arrived in
Phalsbourg; as an usher in the grammar school, a young Alsatian_,
ALEXANDRE CHATRIAN, _of Italian descent, who was born at Soldatenthal,
near Abreschwiller, on the 18th of December, 1826, and who was destined
for the trade of glass-worker. He had been sent in 1844, as an
apprentice, to the glass-works in Belgium, but had, in opposition to the
wish of his parents, determined to return and to be a schoolmaster in
France._
_Erckmann and Chatrian now met, and instantly felt irresistibly drawn to
one another. From this time until near the end of their careers their
names were melted indissolubly into one. In 1848 a local newspaper, "Le
Democrate du Rhin," opened its columns to their contributions, and they
began to publish novels. Their first great success was "L'Illustre
Docteur Matheus" in 1859, which appeared originally in the "Revue
Nouvelle," and which exactly gauged the taste of the general public.
This was followed by "Contes Fantastiques" and "Contes de la Montague,"
in 1860; by "Maitre Daniel Rock," in 1861; by "Contes des Bords du Rhin"
and "Le Fou Yegof" in 1862; "Le Joueur de Clarinette" in 1863; and in
1864, which was perhaps the culminating year of the talent of
Erckmann-Chatrian, by "Madame Therese," "L'Ami Fritz" and "L'Histoire
d'un Conscrit de 1813." These, and innumerable stories which followed
them, dealt almost entirely with scenes of country life in Alsace and
the neighbouring German Palatinate. The authors adopted a strong
Chauvinist bias, and at the time of the Franco-German War their
sympathies were violently enlisted on the side of France._
_In 1872 Erckmann-Chatrian published a political novel which enjoyed an
immense success, "Histoire du Plebiscite"; in 1873, "Les Deux Freres",
and they concluded in many volumes their long romance "Histoire d'un
Paysan." Two of the latest of their really striking romances were "Les
Vieux de la Vielle," 1882, and "Les Rantzau," 1884. During this period,
however, their great vogue was the theatre, where in 1869 they produced
"Le Juif Polonais," and in 1877 "L'Ami Fritz," two of the most
successful romantic plays of the nineteenth century, destined to be
popular in all parts of the world. After the war of 1870-'71 Erckmann
lived at Phalsbourg; which was presently annexed to German Lothringen,
and he became a German citizen; Chatrian continued to reside in Paris,
and remained a Frenchman. For a long time the friends continued to
collaborate on the old terms of intimacy, though at a distance from one
another, but a quarrel finally separated them, on a vulgar matter of
interest. Erckmann claimed, and Chatrian refused, author's rights on
those plays which bore the name of both writers, although Chatrian had
composed them unaided. The rupture became complete in 1889, when the old
friends parted as bitter enemies. Chatrian died a year later, on the
4th of September, 1890, from a stroke of apoplexy, at Villemomble, near
Paris. Erckmann left Phalsbourg, and settled at Luneville, where he died
on the 14th of March, 1899. The temperament of Erckmann was phlegmatic
and melancholy; that of Chatrian impetuous and fiery. They were
strongly opposed to the theories of the realists, which assailed them in
their advancing age, and they stated their own principles of literary
composition in "Quelques mots sur l'esprit humain," 1880, and its
continuation "L'Art et les Grands Idealistes," 1885. For a long time
their popularity was unequalled by that of any other French novelist,
largely because their lively writings were pre-eminently suited to
family reading. But they never achieved an equal prominence in purely
literary estimation._