Alexandre Dumas was born on 24 July 1802, was also called Alexandre Dumas père, and was a French writer. His historic books of high adventure were initially published as serials, including The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. Dumas's father's aristocratic rank helped the youthful Alexandre acquire work with Louis- Philippe, Duke of Orléans, as a writer, a career which led to early success. His father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was born in the French province of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) to Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French nobleman, and Marie-Cessette Dumas, an African slave. At 14, his father took Thomas-Alexandre to France, where he studied at a military school and joined the army for what turned out to be a distinguished career. He was known to have had somewhere around four ill-conceived children, but scholars believe it was seven. On 5 December 1870, Alexandre Dumas died at the age of 68. He was buried at his birthplace of Villers-Cotterêts in the branch of Aisne. His death was overlooked by the Franco-Prussian war. The Paris Métro named a station in his honor. In 2002, Alexandre Dumas' remains were re-buried at the Panthéon of Paris. His last novel, The Knight of Sainte-Hermine, was published in 2005. It highlighted a fictional character killing Lord Nelson (Nelson was shot and killed by an unknown sharpshooter).
