Jean-Louis-Auguste Commerson


Jean-Louis-Auguste Commerson was a 19th-century French writer, journalist and playwright.

Short biography

A specialist of puns and journalistic "canards", Commerson wrote many humorous books, including Pensées d'un emballeur pour faire suite aux « Maximes » de François de La Rochefoucauld, Un million de bouffonneries, Le Petit Tintamarre , La Petite Encyclopédie bouffonne and Un million de chiquenaudes et menus propos tirés de la Gazette de Merluchon.
He also authored comédies en vaudevilles, alone or in collaboration, and established the periodical Le Tam-tam.
He signed most of his works of his surname but only occasionally used the pen names Joseph-Prudhomme and Joseph Citrouillard.

Works

Theatre

Le Tam-tam, magazine hebdomadaire de littérature, d'arts, de sciences et d'industrie was a newspaper published by Commerson from 1835. It would change titles several times during its publication: Le Tam-tam républicain, organe des clubs ; Le Tam-tam de 1848.
Jean-Baptiste Dalès called Dalès ainé collaborated with this paper which is sometimes called "former Tam-Tam" to distinguish it from two other publications by Commerson:
According to Jacques Rouvière, the sentence "Cities should be built in the country, the air is healthier"", generally attributed to Alphonse Allais, is to be found in the Pensées d'un emballeur by Commerson. In fact, it seems that this joke already was in Le Pamphlet provisoire illustré.