Laboulaye's Fairy Book

Édouard René Lefèvre de Laboulaye (1811-1883) who also wrote as René Lefebvre, was a French jurist and author. Laboulaye was received at the bar in 1842, and was chosen professor of comparative law at the Collège de France in 1849. Following the Paris Commune of 1870, he was elected to the national assembly, representing the département of the Seine. In 1875 he was elected a life senator, and in 1876 he was appointed administrator of the Collège de France, resuming his lectures on comparative legislation in 1877. Laboulaye was also chairman of the French Anti-Slavery Society. Always a careful observer of the politics of the United States, and an admirer of its constitution, he wrote a three-volume work on it's political history. During the Civil War, he was a zealous advocate of the Union cause, publishing histories of the cultural connections of the two nations. He is best remembered as the intellectual creator of the Statue of Liberty. His works include: Paris in America (1863), Fairy Tales of all Nations (1867), Abdallah; or, The Four- Leaved Shamrock (also called Quest of the Four-Leaved Clover) (1868) and Last Fairy Tales (1885).