Felix Mardochée Alcan (March 18, 1841 – February 18, 1925) was a French

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

publisher and scholar, born in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

. He was the grandson of Gerson Lévy, author of ''Orgue et Pioutim'', and son of Moyse Alcan, a well-known publisher at Metz. Having finished his studies at the

lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Generally in that type of school the t ...

of his native city, he entered the

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 ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in 1862. When he left it in 1865 he became a lecturer on mathematics till 1869, when he undertook the management of his father's publishing business at Metz. In 1872 he went to Paris, where in the following year he entered the old publishing-house of Germer-Baillière, of which he became the head in 1883. In 1880 he originated a series of school-books for use in the lyceums; this series embraced works on science, history, and philosophy. The publications of his firm include the most considerable works on philosophic subjects published in France. In 1895 he was created knight of the Legion of Honor. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. Alcan died in Paris in 1925.

References

* 1841 births 1925 deaths Publishers (people) from Paris 19th-century French mathematicians 19th-century French Jews Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur People from Metz 20th-century French mathematicians {{France-mathematician-stub