The French artist and author Francois Edouard Joachim Coppée was born on January 26, 1842, and died on May 23, 1908. Coppée was born in Paris to a government worker. He worked as a clerk in the Ministry of War after going to the Lycée Saint-Louis and became famous as a poet of the Parnassian school. He put out his first poems in print in 1864. A lot of people liked his "Poème modernes" in 1869, including "La Grève de forgerons." Coppée's first play, Le Passant, with Sarah Bernhardt and Madame Agar, opened at the Odéon theater that same year and got good reviews. Later, Fais ce que dois (1871) and Les Bijoux de la délivrance (1872), two short poetic plays based on the Franco-Prussian War, also got good reviews. In 1878, Coppée was hired as the historian of the Comédie Francaise. He held this job until 1884, after having worked in the library of the senate. In that year, he quit all of his public jobs after being elected to the Académie francaise. In 1888, he was made an officer of the Legion of Honor.
