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Pierre Athanase Larousse was born in Toucy, France, on October 23, 1817. In 1833, Larousse moved to Versailles where he gained a scholarship to a teaching school. After four years in Versailles, Larousse once again relocated back in Toucy where he taught in a primary school. He found the teaching methods primitive and inflexible, which prompted his move to Paris in 1840. While in Paris, Larousse enrolled in free courses to further his education.
Larousse spent three years from 1848 to 1851 teaching at a private boarding school. During this time he met Suzanne Caubel, whom he would marry in 1872. In 1849, Larousse and Caubel published a French language course directed at children.
Larousse entered into a partnership with Augustin Boyer, whom he met in 1851, to establish the Larousse and Boyer Bookshop. Boyer shared Larousse’s dissatisfaction with the teaching methods of the day. During the following years they published avant-garde textbooks for children, together with instructional reference books for teachers. The focus of the textbooks and instruction manuals was to encourage student creativity and self-sufficiency.
In 1856 Larousse and Boyer published the New Dictionary of the French Language. This was the precursor to Le Petit Larousse, a French-language reference book, entitled with Larousse’s name and motto “I sow to all winds”, to be first published in 1905 and commemerated in 2005 with a 100th anniversary edition. Le Petit Larousse contains a dictionary and encyclopedia of proper nouns.
At the time of publishing the New Dictionary of the French Language, Larousse was already heavily involved in his next undertaking, Great Universal 19th-Century Dictionary. The first volume of his encyclopedic dictionary was issued December 27, 1863. When completed in 1876, it would comprise of fifteen volumes and two supplements, almost 26,300 pages and 500,000,000 signs.
Victor Hugo, a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesmen and human rights activist, extolled Larousse’s immense and comprehensive encyclopedic dictionary which propelled it to classical status.
In 1869, Larousse terminated his partnership with Boyer and devoted his life to the Great Dictionary.
Sadly, Larousse was unable to complete his project, succumbing to a stroke caused by exhaustion on January 3, 1875. His nephew, Jules Hollier, would complete the work in 1876.
To date the Great Universal 19-Century Dictionary remains the most extensive biographical, bibliographical and analytical collection on humanities. Among the subjects covered are the French language, etymologies, grammar rules, biographies, mythology, mathematics, sciences, geography, literary, musical and artistic works.
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