Alexandre Dumas is one of the greatest writers of his time. Alexandre Dumas was born on July 24, 1802, in Villers-Cotterêts, France. Few people know that Alexandre was a grandson of a Haitian slave who was also the illegitimate son of Marie Louise-Elizabeth Labouret and Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, a general in Napoleon's army. His father died when Alexandre was four, in 1806, leaving the family in financial trouble. Although he did not have much money and had limited schooling, Alexandre had a happy childhood.

In 1818, Alexandre's mother informed him that they had no money and that he had to find a job. Alexandre accepted a clerking position for the Duke of Orléans in Paris, where he worked as a clerk. After he met a famous French actor, Talma, and decided to become a play writer. Alexandre wrote his first play, Napoléon Bonapart, in 1825. His most popular novels are the musketeers trilogy, which includes The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Man in the Iron Mask. Another well-known novels were The Count of Monte Cristo, Ten Years Late, and The Black Tulip.

Alexandre fathered two illegitimate children of two different mothers. His son, Alexandre Dumas Junior was born on July 27, 1824 and his daughter, Marie Dumas, was born on March 5, 1831. On February 1, 1840, Alexandre married a woman whom he divorced six years later. By 1843 Alexandre wrote fifteen plays. Historical novels brought him an enormous fortune, but he spent money faster than he earned it. Even though Alexandre earned about 200,000 francs yearly and received an annual sum of 63,000 francs from the newspapers La Presse and the Constitutionel, he was usually in financial trouble,

Alexandre returned to Paris in 1862. After Alexandre became ill, he was taken to his son's house in Puys, France, where he died of a stroke on December 5, 1870. Two years later, his remains were transported to the place of his birth, Villers-Cotterêts.