René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt

His parents, after the sale of the Pixerécourt estate, bought another in the Vosges, Saint-Vallier, in the hope of recovering their feudal and manorial rights, and possibly in time acquiring a marquisate.

At the age of twenty, in 1793, Pixerécourt abandoned his studies of law and left Nancy "on the day of the King's death" to meet his father at Koblenz and enter the Breton regiment as an officer in the army of Condé.

After the denunciations of the Committee of Public Safety, Pixerécourt owed his life to the protection of Lazare Carnot who, for nearly two years, employed him as a secretary in the Ministry of War.

The following year, in April, Le Pèlerin blanc ou les Enfants du hameau ("The White Pilgrim, or the Children of the Village") ran for 386 performances at L’Ambigu.

In 1815, after the total failure of Christophe Colomb, he regained success with Le Monastère abandonné ou la Malédiction paternelle ("The Abandoned Monastery, or the Paternal Curse") which lasted 267 performances.

In 1819, he returned to L’Ambigu with La Fille de l’Exilé ou Huit mois en deux heures ("The Exile's Daughter, or Eight Months and Two Hours").

From 1820, his successes continued, albeit with around a hundred performances for each play: Le Drapeau blanc ("The White Flag", 1821), Ali Baba ou les Quarante voleurs ("Ali Baba, or the Forty Thieves", 1822), Le Moulin des Étangs ("The Mill", 1826), and La Tête de mort ou les Ruines de Pompéi ("The Death's-Head, or the Ruins of Pompeii", 1827).

Although he was not the theatre's owner, he had lost an immense quantity of properties and scenery (estimated as worth 300,000 francs) which contributed greatly to the success of his dramatic presentations.

Around 1838, he left his Parisian "headquarters" at Fontenay-sous-Bois (a house which had belonged to his friend, the composer Nicolas Dalayrac, whose biography he had written) and retired to his birthplace, Nancy, possibly living in a house southeast of the town at Haussonville, le seul bien que m’ait laissé ma famille ("the only property my family has left me"), where, greatly weakened, he set about editing his complete works.