Curated category
French atheists
- André BretonAndré Robert Breton was born on the 19th of February 1896 in Tinchebray, a small town in Normandy. His father Louis-Justin worked as a policeman while his…
- Claude MonetClaude Monet was born on the 14th of November 1840, on the fifth floor of 45 rue Laffitte in Paris, and died on the 5th of December 1926, having spent the…
- Henri MatisseOn New Year's Eve in 1869, Henri Émile Benoît Matisse was born into a wealthy grain merchant family in Le Cateau-Cambrésis.
- Roman PolanskiRoman Polanski was born on the 18th of August 1933 in Paris. His family moved back to Kraków, Poland, in early 1937. Two years later, Nazi Germany invaded…
- Denis DiderotDenis Diderot was born on the 5th of October 1713 in the city of Langres. His father Didier worked as a cutler and his mother Angélique Vigneron supported…
- Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Sartre was born on the 21st of June 1905 in Paris as the only child of Jean-Baptiste Sartre and Anne-Marie Schweitzer.
- Marcel DuchampHenri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp was born on the 28th of July 1887 in Rouen, France. He grew up in a household where art was not merely a hobby but a family…
- Maurice RavelJoseph Maurice Ravel entered the world on the 7th of March 1875 in Ciboure, a small town near Biarritz. His father Pierre-Joseph was an engineer and inventor…
- Albert CamusAlbert Camus was born on the 7th of November 1913 in Mondovi, a working-class town in French Algeria, to a mother who was deaf and illiterate and a father he…
- Michel FoucaultPaul-Michel Foucault was born on the 15th of October 1926 in the city of Poitiers, west-central France. He entered a prosperous, socially conservative family…
- Claude Louis BertholletClaude Louis Berthollet entered the world on the 9th of December 1748 in Talloires. This small town sat near Annecy within the Duchy of Savoy.
- François TruffautOn the 6th of February 1932, François Roland Truffaut was born in Paris to a mother named Janine de Montferrand. His biological father remained unknown for…
- Marie CurieMarie Curie carried test tubes of radioactive isotopes loose in her pocket and stored them in her desk drawer, charmed by the faint light they gave off in…
- Claude Lévi-StraussClaude Lévi-Strauss was born on the 28th of November 1908 in Brussels. His parents were French Jews who had moved there for his father's work as a portrait…
- Simone de BeauvoirSimone de Beauvoir did not consider herself a philosopher, and at the time of her death in 1986 the world did not call her one either.
- Georges BatailleGeorges Bataille was born on the 10th of September 1897 in Billom, a small town in the Auvergne region. His father Joseph-Aristide worked as a tax collector…
- Yann LeCunYann André Le Cun was born on the 8th of July 1960 in Soisy-sous-Montmorency, a suburb of Paris. His family name traces back to the old Breton form Le Cunff…
- Élie MetchnikoffIlya Ilyich Mechnikoff entered the world on the 15th of May 1845 in a village within the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire.