Author: Lefèvre, Pierre Francois Alexandre
Biography:
LEFEVRE, Pierre François Alexandre (1741-1813: NBG)
Lefèvre was born in Paris on 27 Sept. 1741. He began by earning his living as a painter but soon turned to writing, mainly for the stage. Of a series of tragedies that were normally performed before being published--Cosroès (1767), Florinde(1770), Zuma (1776), Don Carlos (1784)—some were more successful than others. Florinde had only one performance; Zuma, at first just acceptable, became popular upon revival a year later. That achievement by such a young author brought him to the notice of the duc d’Orléans, who granted him a pension and made him his secretary. At some point he married and had at least one child. Following the death of his patron in 1785 and the unrest of the Revolution, however, Lefèvre was financially ruined. He withdrew from fashionable life to superintend the education of his son until in 1803 he accepted a position as professor of literature at the military college of La Flèche, in the Loire region. He died at La Flèche on 9 Mar. 1813. He was the author of some occasional poems and is said to have left the unpublished manuscript of a final play, “Stockholm Delivered,” among his literary remains. The translation of Zuma by Thomas Rodd (q.v.), the first English version of any of Lefèvre’s works, had been made 15 years before it was published (i.e. 1785), according to Rodd’s preface. The decision to publish it was probably prompted by the runaway success of Kotzebue’s or rather Sheridan’s (qq.v.) Pizarro, of which Rodd claims Zuma was “the original.” Sheridan’s prose tragedy after Kotzebue’s text appeared in at least 21 “editions” or reprintings in 1799. (NBG; ancestry.com 17 Dec. 2023)
Other Names:
- Le Fevre