Alphonse de Lamartine

Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine born on October 21, 1790 was a politician, writer and poet. He was key in the groundwork of the Second Republic in France. Lamartine is famous for his poem Le lac (The Lake) which is loosely autobiographical. He wrote Jocelyn and La Chute d'un ange and in 1847 wrote Girondins.
Lamartine worked for the French embassy in Italy and in 1929 he was elected as a member of the Academie francasie. During the turbulence of 1847 he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. He worked for France as the joint Head of State during this time. He met with journalists and the republican deputies to agree on the makeup of a provisional government. He was chosen to declare the Republic. As a politician he led efforts to abolish slavery and the death penalty. He worked for the right to work and he supported democracy and pacifism. He was an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1848 and subsequently retied form politics.
Lamartine was impoverished during the last years of his life. He published installments of Cours familier de literature to keep himself alive. He passed away in Paris in 1869 at the age of 78. He traveled extensively and was known as the most celebrated Orientalist in the Middle East and Lebanon. He lost his daughter to a heart condition during this trip and met with the price Simon Karma. He wrote his poem La Chute d'un ange or the Fall of an Angel in Lebanon in 1838.