Flammarion, Camille (1842-1925)

French astronomer and popular writer on astronomy. His Astronomie populaire, first published in 1880, has been frequently revised, and was issued in an English translation as the Flammarion Book of Astronomy in 1964.

He was born in Montigny-le-Roi, and after only elementary education was apprenticed to an engraver in Paris. He studied privately, and in 1858 was employed at the Paris Observatory. His popular book La Pluralité des mondes habités achieved great success but led to his dismissal 1862, when he soon found employment in the Bureau des Longitudes. He earned worldwide fame as a popularizer of astronomy, editing the scientific review Cosmos, issuing the Annuaire astronomique, and founding 1887 the Société Astronomique de France, whose bulletin L'Astronomie continues today. In 1882 he was given property at Juvisy-sur-Orge, near Paris, where he founded a private observatory.