Jean de La Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine (July 8, 1621 – April 13, 1695) was born in Chateau-Thierry, Champagne, in central France. His father was a sort of Deputy Ranger (Maître des eaux et forêts) for the duchy (land owned by duke/duchess) of Chateau-Thierry. La Fontaine went to Paris to study Theology, but he was unsatisfied with this and later studied law. His father arranged a marriage for him in 1647 to Marie Héricart, a girl of fourteen. He was 26 at the time. The two never got along, and they even had a 'separation de biens' in 1658, because of La Fontaine's very poor business skills. He was often in debt, and always sold things in order to cover his debts. He frequently went to Paris during the first few years of his marriage, but after his separation, La Fontaine had decided to become a famous writer and he left his family and moved to Paris, where he lived his most productive years. He found many patrons, one of his first being Nicolas Fouquet. He wrote small pieces of poetry for Fouquet, concerning people from the King (Louis XIV) downwards. Fouquet then fell out of favor with the King and he was arrested and sentenced to death. La Fontaine then went to Limoges to avoid being arrested too. At Limoges, he completed his first tales in verse, which he expanded and published as 'Contes et Nouvelles en vers' in 1666. These tales dealt mainly with marital misdemeanors and love affairs and four different editions were released during La Fontaine's lifetime. The last edition was banned by the authorities because it was considered too obscene. He returned to Paris and stayed with his patroness, Marguerite de Lorraine, in the Luxembourg Palace until 1672. While with her, La Fontaine produced his main work, the Fables. His work 'Fables Choisies mises en Vers', usually called 'Fables de la Fontaine' (La Fontaine's Fables), was published over the last 25 years of his life. The first volume appeared in 1668, and the last volume (the twelfth) appeared in 1694. The total includes 245 poems and fables, each one having a moral. They mostly involved instructions on how to behave correctly or what the rules and consequences of life were. It has been noticed that La Fontaine had based very strongly most of his tales on those of Aesop.
In 1691, at the age of 71, he turned very ill and and he died in Paris in 1695. His wife lived on for fifteen years after him.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_La_Fontaine, http://www.jean-delafontaine.com/, http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/jean_de_la_fontaine/biography, http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Jean_de_La_Fontaine.aspx, http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fontaine.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop, Could not find original painter of Jean de La Fontaine Portrait.

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