François-Jean Willemain d'Abancourt (22 July 1745, Paris – 16 June 1803, Paris) was a French man of letters and bibliophile. Willemain wrote a great number of books, including some poems, plays and

fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse (poetry), verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphized, and that illustrat ...

s, most of them inserted in the ''

Mercure de France The was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group. The gazette was published ...

'' (1777), tragedies, epistles and drama essays. He also translated into verse the tragedy ''Der Tod Adams'' (1757) by

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (; 2 July 1724 – 14 March 1803) was a German poet. His best known work is the epic poem ''Der Messias'' ("The Messiah"). One of his major contributions to German literature was to open it up to exploration outside ...

. He is best known for the beautiful collection of plays he gathered because he would acquire them at any price in all editions and manuscripts.Camille Dreyfus, André Berthelot, ''La Grande Encyclopédie, inventaire raisonné des sciences, des lettres et des arts'', t.1, Paris, H. Lamirault et cie, 1886, (p. 18) He also wrote under the pseudonym "Léonard Gobemouche".

References

Sources

* "François-Jean Willemain d'Abancourt", in Charles Weiss, ''Biographie universelle, ou Dictionnaire historique contenant la nécrologie des hommes célèbres de tous les pays'', 1841

External links

*
Le Chevalier de Faublas
' read online. {{DEFAULTSORT:Abancourt, Francois-Jean Villemain d 18th-century French male writers 18th-century French dramatists and playwrights 18th-century French poets French fabulists French translators French book and manuscript collectors German–French translators 1745 births Writers from Paris 1803 deaths 18th-century French translators