Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire ( 1694 - 1778 )

Birth: Paris, France (21 November 1694) Death : Paris, France (30 May 1778) Burial: Pantheon, Paris Research Field: Literature Education: College Louis-le-Grand Career: In the suite of the Marquis de Chateauneuf, French Ambassador to Holland, but was sent home in disgrace; began to write satire and was banished from Paris; imprisoned in the Bastille, after which he changed his name to Voltaire; had to leave France and went to England (1726); returned to France and lived with Gabrielle Emilie Marquise du Chatelet-Lomont (1734-1747); went to Berlin as Chamberlain to Frederick the Great (1750-1753); settled near Geneva (1758) and farmed, reclaimed waste land, and bred horses as well as writing; wrote 'Candide', one of the first works to suggest a rational explanation for catalstrophes hitherto regarded as the works of an angry deity, such as the 1755 earthquake which destroyed Lisbon; visited Paris, but the excitement and fatigue brought on illness of which he died (1778) Membership: Fellow Election Date: 3/11/1743.