September 28, 1803

Prosper Merimee (September 28, 1803 to September 23, 1870) was many things besides a famous writer: collector, translator, historian, and occupant of the government post Inspector-General of Historical Monuments. One biographer, Sylvia Lyon, in The Life and Times of Prosper Merimee (1948) mentions his fondness for cats. He liked sketching them and even following them on the rooftops of Paris.

Britannica says regarding his literary contributions:

[One hoax he wrote] was La Guzla (1827), by “Hyacinthe Maglanowich,” ballads about murder, revenge, and vampires, supposedly translated from the Illyrian. ...[This work]   deceived even scholars of the day.

Mérimée’s passions were mysticism, history, and the unusual. Inspired by the vogue for historical fiction established by Sir Walter Scott, he wrote La Jacquerie (1828), 36 dramatic scenes about a peasant insurrection in feudal times, and the novel La Chronique du temps de Charles IX (1829), concerning French court life during war and peace.
.....
He was not fond of Napoleon III...., and never became a wholehearted courtier. His letters to Sir Anthony Panizzi, principal librarian of the British Museum and his closest friend in Mérimée’s old age, have been described as a “history of the Second Empire.” They were published posthumously as Lettres à M. Panizzi: 1850–70 (1881).

Prosper Merimee translated Gogol, Pushkin, and Turgenev from Russian to French, and should be more than a name which bobs behind Anglo humanities.  Certainly a study needs to be written discussing the horror genre in the 19th century, from an interdisciplinary perspective,  and Merimee has a place in it.