L'Almanach des Muses was a poetry journal founded in 1765 by Sautreau de Marsy

Claude-Sixte Sautreau de Marsy

Claude-Sixte Sautreau de Marsy was a French journalist and man of letters.He is best remembered for founding the Almanach des Muses in 1765...

.

Almanac

Almanac

An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...

s had known a great vogue during the second half of the 18th century. The aim of the Almanach des Muses was to go beyond what previous almanacs had attempted by presenting to its readership a selection of recent poetry, with critical notes and information about the literary scene. Appearing annually, the Almanach des Muses published a number of lesser-known writers such as Parny

Évariste de Forges de Parny

Évariste Desiré de Forges, vicomte de Parny in Paris) was a French poet.- Biography :...

, Bertin, Roucher

Jean-Antoine Roucher

Jean-Antoine Roucher , was a French poet.Roucher was the son of a tailor from Montpellier. His epithalamium on Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette won him the favour of Turgot, and a salt-tax collectorship. His poem, entitled Les Mois, appeared in 1779, was praised in manuscript, but critically...

, Colardeau

Charles-Pierre Colardeau

Charles-Pierre Colardeau was a French poet. His most notable works are an imitation of Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope and a translation of the first two sections of Night-Thoughts by Edward Young. They witness to the pre-Romantic sensibility of the 18th century, as also seen in the works of...

 or Berquin

Arnaud Berquin

Arnaud Berquin was a French children's author.His most famous work was L'Ami des Enfans which was first translated into English, albeit bowdlerised, by Mary Stockdale and published in London in 1783-4 by Mary's father John Stockdale.The work remained popular until the middle of the nineteenth...

, Legouvé

Gabriel-Marie Legouvé

Gabriel Marie Jean Baptiste Legouvé was a French poet. He was the seventh member elected to occupy seat 4 of the Académie française in 1803....

, Bonnard, Arnault

Antoine-Vincent Arnault

Antoine-Vincent Arnault was a French dramatist.Arnault was born in Paris. His first play, Marius à Minturne , immediately established his reputation. A year later he followed with a second republican tragedy, Lucrèce. Arnault left France during the Reign of Terror, but on his return, he was...

, well-known writers such as Boufflers

Stanislas de Boufflers

Stanislas Jean, chevalier de Boufflers was a French statesman and writer.-Biography:He was born near Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, the son of Louis Franois, marquis de Boufflers. His mother, Marie Catherine de Beauveau Craon, was the mistress of Stanislas Leszczynski, and the boy was brought up at...

, Delille

Jacques Delille

Jacques Delille was a French poet and translator. He was born at Aigueperse in Auvergne.-Life:He was an illegitimate child, and was descended by his mother from the chancellor De l'Hôpital. He was educated at the College of Lisieux in Paris and became an elementary teacher...

, Dorat

Claude Joseph Dorat

Claude Joseph Dorat was a French writer, also known as Le Chevalier Dorat.He was born in Paris, of a family consisting of generations of lawyers, and he joined the corps of the kings musketeers...

, de Fontanes

Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes

Louis-Marcelin, marquis de Fontanes was a French poet and politician.-Biography:Born in Niort , he belonged to a noble Protestant family of Languedoc which had been reduced to poverty by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. His father and grandfather remained Protestant, but he was himself...

, La Harpe

Jean-François de La Harpe

Jean-François de La Harpe was a French playwright, writer and critic.-Life:La Harpe was born in Paris of poor parents. His father, who signed himself Delharpe, was a descendant of a noble family originally of Vaud...

, and also the work of extremely eminent figures such as Chamfort, Beaumarchais and Baculard d’Arnaud

François-Thomas-Marie de Baculard d'Arnaud

François-Thomas-Marie de Baculard d'Arnaud was a French writer and dramatist.-Life:A practitioner of the roman noir...

, above all Voltaire

Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...

 whose writings appeared 200 times between 1765 and 1819. During the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, it printed "La Marseillaise

La Marseillaise

"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song, originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" was written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792. The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795...

" in 1793 and Sade

Marquis de Sade

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...

's eulogy to Marat

Jean-Paul Marat

Jean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...

 in 1794. To be published in the Almanach des Muses, like Millevoye

Charles Hubert Millevoye

Charles Hubert Millevoye was a French poet.First taught by an uncle, he later studied with M. Bardoux, a professor in the College of Abbeville. His father died when he was 13 years old, and he was then sent by his family to Paris to finish his education...

 and Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

Marceline Desbordes-Valmore was a French poet.She was born in Douai. Following the French Revolution, her family emigrated to Guadeloupe. In 1817 she married her second husband, the actor Prosper Lanchantin-Valmore....

, was to have "arrived" on the literary scene.

The Almanach des Muses was both much ridiculed and much imitated. Mercier

Louis-Sébastien Mercier

Louis-Sébastien Mercier was a French dramatist and writer.-Early life and education:He was born in Paris to a humble family: his father was a skilled artisan who polished swords and metal arms. Mercier nevertheless received a decent education.-Literary career:Mercier began his literary career by...

, Rivarol and Champcenetz

Louis René Quentin de Richebourg de Champcenetz

Louis René Quentin de Richebourg de Champcenetz was a French journalist guillotined for his writings. He was the son of the Marquis de Champcenetz, governor of the Tuileries Palace at the time of the French Revolution....

 never hesitated to attack it, dubbing it L'Almanach des Buses ("Almanac of Buzzards"). The decline in reputation was slow but steady, and it ceased publication in 1833, superseded by the literary magazine as we know it today.

Sautreau de Marsy was the editor until 1793 (with Joseph Mathon de la Cour from 1766 to 1769). Étienne Vigée

Étienne Vigée

Louis-Jean-Baptiste-Étienne Vigée was a French playwright and man of letters.Born into an artistic family, he was the son of the pastellist Louis Vigée and the brother of the celebrated painter Élisabeth Vigée. He was popular in the salons for his pleasant personality and quick wit...

 kept it going from 1794 to 1820, succeeded in turn by Justin Gensoul (1821-29) and Jean-Pierre Lesguillon (1830-33).