[1] The son of a printer and bookseller of his hometown, after his studies on a scholarship at College d'Anchin [fr], Berthoud wrote the newspaper his father had founded in 1828, the Gazette de Cambrai, and inserted there serials that were noticed and made him admit to major literary magazines, the Revue des deux Mondes, la Patrie (under the pen name " Sam "), la Mode etc.

[1] At the same time, he instituted in his hometown of Cambrai, free courses of health, anatomy, business law, and undertook himself to teach literature.

He completed his collection Chroniques et traditions surnaturelles de la Flandre, launched at that time, which he eventually brought to 3 volumes (1831–1834).

), and several volumes of the collection Petits livres de M. le curé (1844–1850), and also une Bonne qu’on renvoie, comédie en vaudevilles given in 1851 at the Théâtre des Variétés.

An amator of the game of dominoes, Berthoud was a member of the club of Dominotiers [fr] founded circa 1838 in Paris by the sculptor Dantan le Jeune.