Alexandre Dumas was born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie on July 24, 1802 in Villers-Cotterets, Aisne, France, the youngest of two children. His father was the son of a French nobleman and a Black slave and took the name Dumas from his mother, fighting as a general under Napoleon himself. He died of cancer when Alexandre was four, leaving the family very poor.
Working at the Palais Royal, under the Duke of Orleans, Dumas began writing articles and plays under the name Dumas, as his father had done. His plays became popular, and he took to writing full time. In 1830, however, he became embroiled in the French Revolution, which placed the Duke of Orleans on the throne.
After peace was restored, Dumas began writing novels which were translated into many other languages, earning him a great deal of money, which he spent as fast as he made. Living the high-life and having as many as forty mistresses, he wrote more than 100,000 pages in his lifetime.
When Napoleon became president, ousting the Duke of Orleans, Dumas fled to Belgium, then to Russia and Italy. In 1840, he married Ida Ferrier and had at least seven illegitimate children. He died on December 5, 1870, in Seine-Maritime, France, at the age of 68. In 2002, his ashes were reinterred in the Pantheon de Paris, a great honor.