Alain 1868 – 1951

Emile-Auguste Chartier, who wrote under the pen name Alain, was a French philosopher, essayist, and one of the most influential lycee teachers of his generation. After studies at the Ecole Normale Superieure, he taught philosophy at lycees in Pontivy, Lorient, Rouen, and finally Paris, where his courses at the Lycee Henri-IV trained a remarkable group of pupils including Simone Weil, Maurice Schumann, Jean Hyppolite, and Andre Maurois. His daily Propos, short philosophical essays first written for newspapers and gathered into many volumes, articulated a humane philosophical Cartesianism, a politics of careful civic vigilance, and a celebrated discipline of willed cheerfulness.