Gustave de Beaumont
Comte Gustave Auguste Bonnin de la Bonninière de Beaumont (1802 – 1866) was a French magistrate, prison reformer, and travel companion to the famed philosopher and politician Alexis de Tocqueville. While he was very successful in his lifetime, he is often overlooked by historians, and his name is synonymous with Tocqueville's achievements.[citation needed]
Early life
Beaumont was born in 1802 in Beaumont-la-Chartre, Sarthe, to the count Jules de Beaumont and Rose Préau de la Baraudière. He was the youngest of four children. Beaumont spent his early years in the chateau de La Borde in his birthplace. Like Tocqueville, Beaumont came from nobility; he was a descendant of the Bonin de la Bonnière family.
Career in law
In 1826, Beaumont acquired the position of King's Prosecutor at the
Journey to America
After receiving a commission from King
Later life
Gustave de Beaumont married Clémentine de Lafayette (the granddaughter of the French
The
Last years and death
Although Tocqueville and Beaumont remained close friends, Beaumont was forced financially to turn away from society and retire (along with his family) to his chateau de Beaumont-la-Chartre. Nevertheless, he did not forget his best friend. He oversaw the release of Tocqueville's last book The Old Regime and the Revolution in Paris, while Tocqueville was still grieving for the loss of his father. He was at Tocqueville's side when he died, at Cannes on 16 April 1859. Beaumont took it upon himself to oversee the posthumous publication of his friend's collected works, although he did not live to see the project finished. Gustave de Beaumont died on 30 March 1866 in Paris, the victim of an epidemic. His wife, Clémentine, completed the project a year after her husband's death.
See also
Sources
- De Tocqueville, Alexis, Democracy in America (1835, 1840). New York: Library of America, 2003. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer.
- De Beaumont, Gustave, Marie or Slavery in the United States. A Novel of Jacksonian America. Translated by Barbara Chapman. Introduction by Gerard Fergerson. Stanford University Press, 1958.
- Cossu-Beaumont, Laurence. Marie ou l'esclavage aux Etats-Unis by Gustave de Beaumont (1835). Paris: Forges de Vulcain, 2014. ISBN 978-2-919176-52-6 [1]
- De Beaumont, Gustave. Ireland: Social, Political, and Religious, Introduction by Tom Garvin and Andreas Hess, Harvard University Press, 2006.
External links
- Works by Gustave de Beaumont at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Gustave de Beaumont at Internet Archive
- Gustave de Beaumont : two "lives side by side"
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.)
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help - Yale Tocqueville Manuscripts. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.