HENRI

See also:

• LEON
• LEON, LUIS PONCE DE (1527-1591)
• LEON, MOSES BEN SI
• LEON, or LEON DE LAS ALDAMAS

LEON SMILE

See also:

• HENRI LEON SMILE LAVEDAN (1859— )

LAVEDAN (1859— )  , French dramatist and man of letters, was born at Orleans, the son of Hubert Leon Lavedan, a well-known Catholic and liberal journalist . He contributed to various Parisian papers a series of witty tales and dialogues of Parisian life, many of which were collected in volume form . In 1891 he produced at the Theatre Francais Une Famille, followed at the Vaudeville in 1894 by Le Prince d'Aurec, a satire on the nobility, afterwards re-named Les Descendants . Later brilliant and witty pieces were Les Deux noblesses (1897), Catherine (1897), Le Nouveau jeu (1898), Le Vieux marcheur (1899), Le Marquis de Priola (1902), and Varennes (1904), written in collaboration with G . Lenotre . He had a great success with Le Duel (Comedic Francaise, 1905), a powerful psychological study of the relations of two brothers . Lavedan was admitted to the French Academy in 1898 .