Louis Christophe François Hachette () (5 May 1800 – 31 July 1864) was a French publisher who established a Paris publishing house designed to produce books and other material to improve the system of school instruction. Publications were initially focused on the classics and subsequently expanded to include books and magazines of all types. The firm is currently part of a global publishing house.

Early life

Hachette was born at

Rethel Rethel () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture and third-most important city and economic center in the department. It is situated on the river Aisne, near the northern border of Champagne and 37 ...

in the Ardennes ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

'' of France. After studying for three years at the prestigious

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

with the intention of becoming a teacher, in 1822 he was expelled, on political grounds. In 1826, after briefly studying law, Hachette opened Brédif, a bookshop located near the Sorbonne in Paris. The focus of the business was to produce works designed to improve the system of school instruction and to promote general culture in the community. He published manuals on various topics including dictionaries of modern and ancient languages, educational journals, and French, Latin and Greek classics annotated by the most eminent authorities.

Milestones

In 1833, the Guizot Schools Law was passed which required all municipalities to open a primary school. Louis Hachette had been putting together an alphabet primer since 1829 and his was the only company capable of responding to the public order for a million textbooks. In 1846, the L. Hachette & Company was founded. That year, Emile Littré signed a contract with the new firm to publish a dictionary, the first volumes of which appear in 1863. In 1852, Hachette contracted with seven railway companies to create station bookstalls. In addition to travel guides for rail passengers, the small outlets sold novels by authors including

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

Gérard de Nerval Gérard de Nerval (; 22 May 1808 – 26 January 1855) was the pen name of the French writer, poet, and translator Gérard Labrunie, a major figure of French romanticism, best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection '' Les ...

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...

and the children’s series Bibliothèque Rose, including those by La Comtesse de Ségur. In 1855 Hachette founded ''Le Journal pour tous'', a publication with a circulation of 150,000 weekly. Hachette started printing ''

Le Tour du Monde ''Le Tour du monde, nouveau journal des voyages'' was a French weekly travel journal first published in January 1860.Hachette

References

*Hachette Livre – Key dates retrieved 2017-03-05 from http://www.hachette.com/en/about-us/key-dates *"Hachette, Louis Christophe Francois". (2000). ''Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Biography'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hachette, Louis 1800 births 1864 deaths People from Rethel French magazine publishers (people) French magazine founders French book publishers (people) École Normale Supérieure alumni 19th-century French businesspeople