Alexandre Dumas was born on July 24, 1802 in Villers-Cotterêts, France. He never met his grandfather, Marquis Antoine-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie or his grandmother, Marie-Céssette Dumas, a black slave from Haiti; both grandparents died before his birth.

Alexandre Dumas’ father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a general in Napoleon’s army, died when Alexandre was four, leaving Alexandre’s mother, Marie-Louise Élisabeth Labouret, to support the family. 

While working as a clerk in the royal palace in Paris, Alexandre Dumas began publishing stories and plays. His first full-length play, Henry III, made him famous at age 27.

Best remembered for his novels The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas died of a stroke at his son’s home in France on December 5, 1870. His son, also named Alexandre Dumas, was a writer like his father.