LOUIS GUSTAVE

See also:

• LOUIS GUSTAVE VAPEREAU (1819–1906)

VAPEREAU (1819–1906)  , French man of letters and lexicographer, was born at Orleans on the 4th of April 1819 . Educated at the Ecole Normale he became a teacher of philosophy, and was entrusted by Victor Cousin with the preparation of his studies on the Pensees of Pascal . Under the empire his republican principles cost him his position, and Vapereau studied for the bar . He practised, however, little or not at all, and after 187o he was appointed prefect of Cantal (187o) and of Tarn et Garonne (1871–73) . From 1877 to 1888 he was inspector-general of public instruction . He was the author of some excellent editions of the classics, and of works on political and social questions, but he is famous for his valuable Dictionnaire universel des contemporains (1858; 6th ed., 1893), brought up to date in 1895 by a supplementary volume . He also drew up a Dictionnaire universel des litterateurs (1876) . At the time of his death at Norsang-sur-Orge in 1906, he had been for twenty-six years a regular contributor to L'Illustration, some of his notes written for this journal being collected in 1896 as L'Homme et la vie .