Hetzel, Pierre-Jules

(1814-1886)

   publisher, writer, political figure

   Born in Chartres, Pierre-Jules Hetzel published novels under the pseudonym P. J. stahl. He is above all famous as an editor. Beginning as a clerk in Paris in 1836 at the publisher Paulin, he founded, in the following year in association with Paulin, a publishing house. Hetzel then entered politics and, in 1848, became a member of the cabinet of Alphonse de Lamartine (foreign affairs and the naval office), but had to seek exile in Brussels after the coup d'état of napoléon ш on December 2, 1851. It was Hetzel who published victor hugo's pamphlet, Napoléon le petit (1852). Returning to Paris in 1860, he founded the Bibliothèque illustrée des familles, which became, in 1864, the Bibliothèque d'éducation et de recréation. in the same year appeared the first issue of Magasin d'éducation et de recréation for which Hetzel, jean macé, and jules verne received a medal from the Académie Française in 1867. Besides almost all the works of verne, Hetzel published works of Stendhal, george sand, émile zola, and the Contes (Tales) of charles perrault.