(EMILE ERCKMANN and ALEXANDRE CHATRIAN), two French men of letters, the first of whom was born 20th May, 1822, at Phalsbourg; the second, 2d Dec. 1826, in the village of Soldatenthal, commune of Abreschwiller, both in what was then the French dep. of Meurthe, but is now reunited to Germany as part of the imperial territory of AlsaeoLorraine. Erekmaim, the son of a bookseller, through a rather irregular course of study at the college of his native town, went lo Paris in 1842 to study law, which he broke off several times, and only passed his third examination in 1857, and filially abandoned the study in the following year. Dur ing the interval, he had set himself to make a name in literature, in co-operation with M. Chatrian. The latter, belonging to an old family of glass-makers in Meurthe, ruined by reverses in trade, was acting as tutor at the college of Phalsbourg, when, in 1847, he was introduced to M. Erckmanu. From that time the two friends employed their pens in the same works, which they signed with the two names united in one; and it was only about 1863 that the authors informed their readers that the numerous works of fiction, which had obtained a wide-spread popularity, and were supposed by the general public to be the work of a single writer, were the fruits of their friendly collaboration. Their -early works attracted comparatively little notice; and it is said that their first work was rejected by all the newspapers of Paris. and by many provincial journals. In 1848, they published several feuilletous in the .7Xotocrate du Rhin, which had just been started: Le Sacrifice d' Abraham, Le Bourgmestre en Bouteille, etc., which they have since published separately. At the same time they wrote a drama, Le Chasscur des Ruines, for the Ambigu-Comique, which the theater accepted, subject to changes, which they refused to make. They produced another drama, L' Alsace en 1814, for the theater of Stras
burg, which was suppressed by the prefect on the second representation. They wrote numerous novels at this time for different journals, some. of which were very little noticed, while others remained in MS. for years. Despairing of being able to live by their pens, Erckmanu recommenced his law studies, and Chatrian obtained a situation in the office of the Eastern railway. It was not till 1859 that L'Illustre Docteur Hatheus <1859, in-18; 3d edition, 1864), published by the Librairie-Nouvelle, gave a certain eclat to the collective name of Erckmann-Chatrian. Le Fou Yegof (1862, in-18) is one of a series of novels, the subjects of which are taken from their national history, and gives a picture of the invasion of 1814. Le Conscrit de 1813 (1864) and Waterloo (1865) are fragments of an autobiography, and are supposed to be the recollections of a common soldier, and relate the disastrous campaigns of 1813 and 1814. These may be called the gems of their collection. Le Joucur de Clarinette (1863), a simple story of a village musician, and Les 11.771Oureux dc Catlierine;another tale of village life in the same volume, are nearly perfect. L'Homme du Peuple appeared in 1865, and is less favorably spoken of as a work of art. It pictures the life of the modern French workman. In 1866, appeared La Matson Forestiere, and La Guerre; in 1867, Le Blocus, which has been trans lated under the title, The Blockade of Phalsbourg; a historical romance in 1868, Ilistoire d'un Paysan; in 1869, Le Juif Polonais, a play. Among their latest works are The Story of the Plebiscite by one of the 7,500,000 who toted Yes (trans. in Cornhill Magazine, 1871-72); and Brigadier Frederic: a Story of an Alsatian (Eng. trans. 1875).