Gaston Leroux

Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux was born on May 6th, 1868 in Paris, France. The son of a wealthy shop owner, Leroux went to boarding school in Normandy and later studied law in Paris, earning a degree in 1889. During this time, Leroux came into an inheritance of millions of francs, an astronomical sum for the time and embarked on a journey of drinking and gambling that ended with most of his inheritance gone.

He began working as a theater critic and reporter in the early 1900's, reporting on the Russian Revolution of 1905, among other things. Leroux enjoyed writing so much that he began writing plays and novels of his own. He began writing a series called "The Adventures of Rouletabille," a detective series which was first published in 1907 with which he saw moderate success.

In 1909, he published what became his most famous work, "The Phantom of the Opera" via a series in a magazine called La Gaulois and the story was later made into a book, with an English translation appearing for the first time in 1911.

In 1919, he and his friend Arthur Bernede, created their film company, Societe des Cineromans to publish novels that they could then turn into films.

Leroux passed away in 1927 in Nice, France as the result of a urinary infection. His contribution to French detective and mystery stories is still revered in the country today.