Alexandre Dumas, pere, was born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie on July 24, 1802 in Villers-Cotterêts, Aisne, France. He was originally a successful magazine essayist and playwright before becoming a world-renowned novelist, particularly with his exciting classic novels THE THREE MUSKETEERS and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO.

Dumas, a French writer, is best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read authors in the world. Many of his works, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne, were originally serialized in much the same way as the writing of Charles Dickens.

Dumas made extensive use of the aid of numerous assistants and collaborators, of which Auguste Maquet was the best known. It was Maquet who outlined the plot of The Count of Monte Cristo and made substantial contributions to The Three Musketeers and its sequels, as well as several of Dumas' other novels. When working together, Maquet proposed plots and wrote drafts, while Dumas added the details, dialogues, and the final chapters.

Dumas' writing earned him a great deal of money; but Dumas was frequently broke or in debt, as a result of spending lavishly on women and high living. The large and costly Château de Monte-Cristo that he built was often filled with strangers and acquaintances, who took advantage of his generosity.

When King Louis-Philippe was ousted in a revolt, Dumas was not looked upon favorably by the newly elected President, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. In 1851 Dumas fled to Brussels, Belgium, mainly to escape his creditors. From there he traveled to Russia, where French was the second language, and where his writings were enormously popular. Dumas spent two years in Russia before moving on to seek adventure and fodder for more stories. In March 1861 the kingdom of Italy was proclaimed, with Victor Emmanuel II as its king. For the next three years Alexandre Dumas would be involved in the fight for a united Italy, where he founded and led a newspaper named Indipendente. He did not return to Paris until 1864.

Despite Alexandre Dumas' success and aristocratic connections, his being of mixed race would affect him all his life (his maternal grandfather was Afro-Haitian). In 1843, in fact, he had written a short novel, GEORGES, that addressed some of the issues of race and the effects of colonialism.

On December 5, 1870 Dumas passed away at the age of 68 in Puys (near Dieppe, Seine-Maritime), France.