Alexandre Dumas (UK: , US: ; French: [al?ks?~d? dyma]; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie [dyma davi d? la paj?t?i]; 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (French for 'father'), was a French writer.
His works have been translated into many languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors.
Many of his historical novels of high adventure were originally published as serials, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later.
His novels have been adapted since the early twentieth century into nearly 200 films.
Dumas's last novel, The Knight of Sainte-Hermine, unfinished at his death, was completed by scholar Claude Schopp and published in 2005.
It was published in English in 2008 as The Last Cavalier.
Prolific in several genres, Dumas began his career by writing plays, which were successfully produced from the first.
He also wrote numerous magazine articles and travel books; his published works totalled 100,000 pages.
In his lifetime, he was known to have at least four illegitimate children, although twentieth-century scholars found that Dumas fathered three other children out of wedlock.
He acknowledged and assisted his son, Alexandre Dumas, to become a successful novelist and playwright.
They are known as Alexandre Dumas père ('father') and Alexandre Dumas fils ('son').
Among his affairs, in 1866, Dumas had one with Adah Isaacs Menken, an American actress then less than half his age and at the height of her career.
The English playwright Watts Phillips, who knew Dumas in his later life, described him as "the most generous, large-hearted being in the world.
He also was the most delightfully amusing and egotistical creature on the face of the earth.
His tongue was like a windmill – once set in motion, you never knew when he would stop, especially if the theme was himself."