About+the+Playwright

=**Edmond Rostand**=

Edmond Rostand, the author of __Cyrano de Bergerac__, is known as the "last great romantic dramatist." In addition to being a dramatist, he was also a poet. When writing plays, Rostand specialized in writing tragedies. However, the tragedies that he wrote were not the typical tragedies which author's during his time wrote. An audience was left feeling overjoyed and inspired after viewing Rostand's tragedies. One of Rostand's major accomplishments in life occurred in 1901 when he became the youngest writer to be elected to the French Academy at the mere age of thirty-two.



Edmond Rostand was born to a wealthy, upper class family in 1869 in Marseille, France. During his teenage years, he published many poems and plays with little success. Even though he studied law and earned a degree, Rostand had his heart set on writing literature. After producing many successful plays, including __Cyrano de Bergerac__ and __L'Aiglon__, Rostand became well-known with the French public as an elite dramatist. However, he could not handle this fame and his health began to decline as a result. Due to his health problems, he retired to his family-owned country estate. There, he wrote many more plays and poems which were not as famous as __Cyrano de Bergerac__. Since some of his works were even regarded as failures, he set off to retire. On December 2, 1918, Rostand passed away from pneumonia, which he received from the Spanish Flu Pandemic.



In a biography of Rostand, Sue Lloyd described how the publishing of __Cyrano de Bergerac__ was the culmination in Rostand's life. She mentioned that Rostand "had to live up to the expectations of the French people" and that "the fame from his very first book of poems turned into a crushing burden from which only death could release him." In other words, Rostand gained too much fame from __Cyrano de Bergerac__, his most illustrious play.