Ercrmam-Chatrian, the joint name of two French novelists, who have been collaborators for many years. Emile Erckmann was born in Pfalzburg, then in the department of Meurthe, Lorraine, May 20,1822; Alexandre Chateian, in Soldatenthal, a forest hamlet near Abresch-viller, in the same department, Dec. 18, 1826. The father of the former was a bookseller, that of the latter a glass founder, the descendant of one of the Italian families brought into France by Colbert to introduce the glass manufacture. Erckmann was placed as a boarder in the communal college of Pfalzburg, whence he went in 1842 to Paris to study law. Chatrian, destined by his parents for the business of his ancestors, was sent in 1844 into Belgium, where he soon obtained a good position in the glass works; but, unable to overcome his taste for letters, he returned to Pfalzburg against the wishes of his family, and took the position of an usher in the communal college, where he also had studied for a short time. In 1847 he made the acquaintance of Erckmann, who had been obliged to return to Pfalzburg by illness. From this time their history is common. Erckmann had published previously an Essai sur le remplace-ment militaire (8vo, Paris, 1844), but Chatrian had not yet appeared as a writer.

In 1848, after the revolution of February, they went to Paris, Erckmann to continue his legal studies, Chatrian to take a situation in the office of the Eastern railway. In the same year they made their first joint literary venture, furnishing to the Democrate du Rhin a number of short stories, Le sacrifice d' Abraham, Le bourgmestre en bouteille, etc, most of which have since been collected and published in book form. They wrote also for the Ambigu Comique a drama entitled Le chasseur des ruines, which was accepted on condition of certain changes, which they refused to make. Another play, L'Alsace en 1814, was brought out at the Stras-burg theatre, but was suppressed by the prefect on its second representation. During the following years they contributed numerous novelettes and serial stories to different publications, exhibiting in their work such a unity of conception and of style that the public remained ignorant of its double origin; but they failed to make any remarkable impression and almost despaired of success. Erckmann continued his studies in a desultory way, giving most of his attention to literature, and did not pass his last legal examination till 1858, Chatrian meanwhile remaining in the railway office.

In 1859 the publication of L'illustre docteur Matheus made a change in their fortunes, and their joint names became familiar to the world. Thenceforward they devoted themselves to literature, and many novels, published at regular intervals, exhibit an assiduous and successful collaboration almost unparalleled. Their works strongly reflect the manners and customs of their native region, giving patient and minute photographs of Lotharingian and Alsatian peasant life, and picturesque descriptions of the scenes familiar to them. The pleasures of Parisian life have never weaned them from the love of their country, and they are said to have built up in the heart of Paris a little Pfalzburg, where they cherish the customs and foster the traditions of their native home. They are strong republicans, and their later writings breathe a spirit which has done much to disabuse the French people of their love for imperialism. Their principal works, besides those already mentioned, are: Contes fantastiques (1860); Con-tesde la montagne (1860); Maitre Daniel Rock (1861); Contes des bords du Rhin (1862); L'in-vasion, ou le fou Yegof (1862); Le joueur de clarinette, etc. (1863); Madame Therese (1863); L'ami Fritz (1864); Histoire d'un conscrit de 1813 (1864); Waterloo (1865); Histoire d'un homme du peuple (1865); La maison fores-tiere (1866); La guerre (1866); Le blocus (1867); Histoire d'un paysan (1868); Le Juif polonais, a play successfully brought out at the theatre of Cluny (1869); Le plebiscite (1872); and Les deux freres (1873). Many of these stories have been translated in England and the United States. Le plebiscite appeared in England in 1872 under the title "The Story of the Plebiscite, related by one of the 7,500,-000 who voted 'Yes;'" and in this country as "A Miller's Story of the War" (1872).