Edmond Francois Valentin About was a French author, writer, and journalist. He was born on February 14, 1828, and died on January 16, 1885. He was born in Dieuze, which is in the French department of Moselle and the Lorraine area. In 1848, he got into the École Normale by coming in second in the yearly competition to get in. Hippolyte Taine won the competition. Francisque Sarcey, Challemel-Lacour, and Prevost-Paradol were also in college with him at the same time as Taine. About was thought to be the most energetic, bright, and ""undisciplined"" of all of them. One of his teachers is said to have told him, ""You will never be more than a little Voltaire,"" and About's work did tend toward witty humor and commentary on current events in the style of Voltaire. After he finished college, he went to the French school in Athens. He said that he had never planned to become a professor, which is what the École Normale was for, so he went back to France in 1853 and focused on writing and news.
