Louis Léon Théodore Gosselin (7 October 1855, Richemont, Moselle

Richemont, Moselle

Richemont is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in northeast France.The population is 20,043 as of January 2010....

 - 7 February 1935) was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 and playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 who wrote under the pen name G. Lenotre. He wrote articles in publications such as Le Figaro

Le Figaro

Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...

, Revue des deux mondes

Revue des deux mondes

The Revue des deux Mondes is a French language monthly literary and cultural affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829....

, Le Monde illustré

Le Monde Illustré

Le Monde illustré was a leading 19th century illustrated newsmagazine in France. Many of its highly realistic drawings were actually made from photographs, at a time when photographic reproduction in print was not technically feasible....

 and Le Temps

Le Temps (Paris)

Le Temps was one of Paris's most important daily newspapers from April 25, 1861 to November 30, 1942.Founded in 1861 by Edmund Chojecki and Auguste Nefftzer, Le Temps was under Nefftzer's direction for ten years, when Adrien Hébrard took his place...

. He also produced numerous works dealing with 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...

, especially the Reign of Terror

Reign of Terror

The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...

, constructed from his research into primary documents of the era

Primary source

Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied....

. His work was recognized and admired by his contemporaries. Gosselin was made an officer of the Légion d'honneur

Légion d'honneur

The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

 and in 1932 was elected to the Académie française

Académie française

L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...

, but died before being able to sit in the Academy and never made the speech which he had written in homage to his predecessor, René Bazin

René Bazin

René François Nicolas Marie Bazin was a French novelist.Born at Angers, he studied law in Paris, and on his return to Angers became Professor of Law in the Catholic university...

.

His works include: Paris Révolutionnaire, La Guillotine et les exécuteurs des arrêts criminels pendant la Révolution; Un conspirateur royaliste pendant la Terreur : le baron de Bats; Le Vrai Chevalier de Maison-Rouge; La Captivité et la mort de Marie-Antoinette; La Chouannerie normande au temps de l’Empire; Le Drame de Varennes; Les Massacres de Septembre; Les Fils de Philippe-Égalité pendant la Terreur; Bleus, Blancs et Rouges; Le Roi Louis XVII et l’énigme du Temple; La Proscription des Girondins.

He also wrote for the theatre: Les Trois Glorieuses, Varennes, Les Grognards.

G. Lenotre died in Paris on 7 February 1935.

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