Biography
Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) was a French poet, novelist, historian, diplomat, and politician. Born in Mâcon on October 21, 1790, he grew up in a Catholic aristocratic family. His first major collection, Méditations poétiques (1820), brought him fame; it includes “Le Lac” (“The Lake”), one of his best-known poems. He later served in the French diplomatic corps, was elected to the Académie française in 1829, and entered parliament in 1833. In 1848, during the revolution that established the Second Republic, he joined the provisional government and served as foreign minister. He died in Paris on February 28, 1869.
