Camille was the elder brother of Ernest Flammarion (May 30, 1846 to January 22, 1936) The brothers were born into humble circumstances, and when family fortunes deteriorated further, Camille was found a job in Paris, (Dickensian waif style) and the story goes, quite believably, that this fourteen year old boy determined to continue his education even though that meant studying at night, sometimes with just the light of the moon to brighten the pages. Camille fortuitously soon got a job at the Paris Observatory where he was admitted also as a student; this position fit perfectly with his ambitions to discover the secrets of astronomy. And his precociousness resulted in early success as a journalist of scientific literature. This work was bolstered by his own astronomical researches which even included balloon journeys, quite innovative at that time. With his stories and lectures on astronomy Flammarion exemplified and bolstered the current enthusiasm for science, even making a globe of Mars and publishing a book The Planet Mars and Its Conditions of Habitability (1892). His popularity can be glimpsed in a gift of a free mansion in 1882, from a follower.
His brother Ernest Flammarion was also successful, and also had the aim of educating the public. In 1876 Ernest founded Groupe Flammarion, a French publishing house which is still very important in France. His first book was his brother's Treaty of Popular Astronomy.(1878). If Camille looked up, Ernest looked, sometimes, down. We can see why with this book cover, for cartoons he edited.
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