Hippolyte de Villemessant

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Hippolyte de Villemessant

Jean Hippolyte Auguste Delaunay de Villemessant (born April 22, 1810 in Rouen , † April 12, 1879 in Monte-Carlo ) was a French journalist .

Life

Hippolyte de Villemessant was a biological son of Colonel Pierre Cartier and Augustine Louise Renée Françoise de Launay de Villemessant. He used his father's name until he was 14 years old, after which he took his mother's name. In June 1831 he married Madeleine Briard. He opened a silk and ribbon shop in Blois , which soon went bankrupt . He then worked as an inspector for an insurance company in Tours , then in Nantes .

In 1839 Villemessant went to Paris to devote himself to journalism . His weekly magazine for fashion, literature, theater and music, La Sylphide , went down after the second bankruptcy declaration. In 1844 he leased the fashion section of the press under the name of his grandmother Louise de Saint-Loup , which he edited until 1848. After the February Revolution of 1848 , he allied himself with the Legitimists , whose interests he championed from 1848 to 1850 in the journals Le Lampion , La Bouche de fer and La Chronique de Paris , which he founded successively with Calonne and Boyer . These sheets were quickly suppressed.

Since April 1854, Villemessant, supported by his sons-in-law Gustave Bourdin and Benoît Jouvin , published Le Figaro , initially as a twice-weekly magazine, which immediately achieved great success and, under his skillful direction, became the most widely read paper. After his daily newspaper Événement, founded in November 1865, was suppressed a year later, Le Figaro appeared as a political daily from 1866 . He held its management until 1875 and then passed it on to Francis Magnard .

In the Mémoires d'un journaliste (6 vols., 1867–78) Villemessant told his own fate. His charity towards poor colleagues was praised. He died on April 12, 1879 at the age of 69 on his estate in Monte Carlo.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Villemessant, Hippolyte de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French journalist
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Rouen
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1879
Place of death Monte Carlo