Jean-François Roger

Who was Jean-François Roger?

Jean-François Roger, sometimes called François Roger, was a French politician, journalist, poet and dramatic author. During the Revolution, at 16 years of age, he and his family were imprisoned for seventeen months for singing royalist songs. He was a civil servant, and he entered l' University where he published works of school literature. He was later appointed Professor during the Empire and Restoration. He was elected member of the French Academy, as a replacement for Suard, on 8 August 1817 and received by the duke of Lévis on 30 November next. His election was widely criticized. He was a member of the Commission of the Dictionary where he fought the Lacretelle proposal, accepted Villemain and the count of Holy-Aulaire and voted against Victor Hugo. He was one of the companions of the “Lunch of the Fork”. Of his comic and lyric works, sometimes written in collaboration with Etienne de Jouy, his greatest success is a comedy in verse, in three acts: L'Avocat, played for the first time at the Comédie-Française.