Émile-Auguste Chartier (French: [ʃaʁtje];
3 March 1868 – 2 June 1951), commonly known
as Alain ([alɛ̃]), was a French philosopher,
journalist, and pacifist.
He adopted his pseudonym in homage to the
15th-century Norman poet Alain Chartier.
== Early life ==
Alain was born in 1868.
He entered lycée d'Alençon in 1881 and studied
there for five years.
On 13 June 1956, the lycée was renamed lycée
Alain, after its most famous student.
== Career ==
After Alain qualified at the École Normale
Supérieure and received the agrégation in
philosophy, he taught at various institutions:
Pontivy, Lorient, Lycée Pierre Corneille
in Rouen, and, in Paris: (Lycée Condorcet
and Lycée Michelet).
From 1903, he contributed to several journals
using his pseudonym, Alain.
He was most commonly referred to as "Alain"
by his pupils and peers.
In 1909, he was appointed a teacher (or professor)
at the Lycée Henri-IV in Paris.
He deeply influenced his pupils, who included
Raymond Aron, Simone Weil, Georges Canguilhem,
and André Maurois.
Reviewing the beneficial effect he had on
his former pupils Simone Weil and Simone de
Beauvoir, Professor John Hellman writes that
Alain was the greatest teacher of their generation.Among
his most important publications are The Dreamer,
81 chapters about the spirit and passions,
About Happiness, Mars, and The citizen against
powers.
== Death ==
He died in 1951.
He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
== Works (selection) ==
Petit Traité d'Harmonie pour les aveugles
(Short Treaty of Harmony for the Blind; in
braille), 1918
Mars; Or the Truth about War, New York, Jonathan
Cape & Harrison Smith N.D., 1930
Alain on Happiness, New York, Ungar, 1973
The Gods, New directions, 1974
