Full Name Auguste-Michel-Benoît Gaudichot Born 31 July 1800 Former 3rd arrondissement of Paris Occupation Playwright, journalist, novelist Died 23 April 1883, Paris, France People also search for Ferdinand de Villeneuve, Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois, Jean-François Bayard | ||
Auguste-Michel-Benoît Gaudichot pseudonym: Michel Masson (31 July 1800 – 12 thermidor an VIII- – 23 April 1883) was a French playwright, journalist and novelist of the 19th century.
Biography
A worker's son, he began acting at age 10 and played the roles of children in several plays. He was danser at the Théâtre Monthabor, but he had only little success. So he stopped as a danser, and took a job as an apprentice in a bookshop. There he saw other starting authors like M.Champfleury. Masson liked reading books, and he started writing too. But he did not like the commercial side of his job. He worked a time as a café waiter. Masson started writing articles for newspapers, the quality of his work was recognized, and articles of his hand were published in newspapers like Les Nouveautés, the Mercure de France and La Lorgnette. (journal des théâtres, de la littérature, des arts, des moeurs, des modes et de la librairie, pour Paris, les départemens et l'étranger) · He was asked to join the redaction of Le Figaro, where he collaborated until 1831.
His plays were présented on several Parisian stages of the 19th century, including the Théâtre du Vaudeville, the Théâtre des Variétés, the Théâtre des Nouveautés, the Théâtre du Gymnase, the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, and the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin.
Masson was the name of his mother: Nicole Agnès Masson. He also wrote under the pseudonym Michel Raymond, when working with Raymond Brucker, and authored, among others, several novels, including some for children.
Long before he started writing for theater, Michel Masson had established his reputation as a writer of novels. His roman debut was received with high praise by the critics. It was written in cooperation with Raymond Brucker, Le Maçon (1829, 4 vol. in-12) and published under the pseudonym Michel Raymond. The merger of both their first names. But in those days Brucker also worked with the less known Léon Gozlan on another book: Les Intimes. And riding on the success of Le Maçon Brucker also used the name Michel Raymond for this book. Michel Masson made no objections to this, but thereupon he ended any cooperation with Brucker. To take advantage of the pseudonym himself, Michel first published two volumes of Daniel, le Lapidaire, ou les Contes de l'Atelier (1832-1833) also under the name Michel Raymond. They had a great success, and vol 3 and 4 he published under his own name: Michel Masson. Most the stories of this bundle were later edited for the theatre.
On 18 February 1824, Michel Masson married Françoise Deliége. Of this marriage 5 children were born, but only one survived. After a 47-year long marriage Françoise died February 1871. Shortly after this, April 1873, Michel Masson remarried with Clémence Hadingue, the daughter of an actress, and at the age of 74, he was again a father. Reason enough for Mr. Hippolyte Masson - the son from his first marriage - to start a law suit in which he claimed, as heir of his mother, his legacy. (Mostly the money he expected of all the books and other publications of his father) The verdict was in favor of the son.
His 1834 novel "Un Cœur d'une Jeune Fille" drew the ire of Edgar Allan Poe, who attacked it for being too 'suggestive' in the "Democratic Review" (1844, vol.17 issue 78, pg 583). His 1831 novel Le Grain de Sable inspired Multatuli writing his play Vorstenschool or School of Princes (1872).