The Book, Cat, & Cat Book Lovers Almanac

of historical trivia regarding books, cats, and other animals. Actually this blog has evolved so that it is described better as a blog about cats in history and culture. And we take as a theme the advice of Aldous Huxley: If you want to be a writer, get some cats. Don't forget to see the archived articles linked at the bottom of the page.

January 22, 2016

January 22, 1936

Ernest Flammarion (May 30 1846 to January 22, 1936), founder of the Groupe Flammarion publishing house (in 1867) was a book seller and publisher.  He and his brother, Camille, came from an impoverished background. Camille Flammarion wrote books on popular astronomy, spiritualism, and science fiction, so it was convenient that his brother published books (not quite half of Camille's titles were published by Groupe Flammarion.) Here is Ernest Flammarion:



and here is a photo (1931)  wrongly, 
in some sources: attributed to him, 




I suspect the confusion lies in the fact Flammarion published a book with the picture, and a computer search turned up his name in proximity to the photo.  Below is a good example; Flammarion is listed as the artist for this book sometimes, but a simple glance at the title shows the root of the confusion.





It is amusing that the artists's name on the cover is just Steinlen, when his name is Theophile Steinlen.  The editeur though, has his whole name on the cover of this lovely book, published in 1898. Here is another illustration from the pages within:






I don't know how much money Ernest Flammarion made on his brother's books, but another source, Henri Poincare, Impatient Genius, (Ferdinand Verhulst, 2012) says he  made "a fortune" on Bibliotheque de Philosophie Scientifique, (under the editorship of Gustav Le Bon ((1841-1931)) whose idea it was). He published in this series these volumes by Henri Poincare:

La Science et LHypothese (1902)
La Valeur de la Science (1905)
Science et Methode (1908)
Dernieres Pensees (1913).


That firm (or the successor which bought it out in 2000) also recently published Choupette, about Karl Lagerfeld's cat,  but that is for another post.

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