ALEXANDRE DUMAS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

ALEXANDRE DUMAS

World’s Prolific Writer

Alexandre Dumas was the most prolific writer that ever lived. After many years devoted to the production of a rapid succession of plays, he turned to fiction. The only completejset of his works ever issued ran to 277 volumes. Dumas himself told Louis Napoleon, Emperor of France, that he had written 1200 volumes but he was prone to exaggeration. There was a time, however, when he did turn out as many as 40 volumes a year. This was made possible by the help of collaborators. He gathered about him a group of young men who helped him in his work, notably Auguste Maquet, who worked on “The Three Musketeers” and "The Count of Monte Cristo.” Dumas rushed headlong into every war and political Trouble that came along; he was exiled from France at one time ; he had innumerable love affairs, mostly, with lovely ladies of the stage; he built a tremendous castle outside of Paris which he called Monte Cristo and kept prodigal open house; on the mantelpiece he kept a large bowl filled with gold for the convenience of hard-up friends who were afraid to ask for help: he died in poverty.