{{Short description|French journalist and playwright}} {{More citations needed|date=March 2025}} right|thumb
'''Alfred Capus''' (25 November 1858<ref>{{cite book|last=Schwob|first=Marcel|author2=John Alden Green|title=Correspondance inédite|publisher=Librairie Droz|year=1985|volume=233 of Histoire des idʹees et critique littéraire|isbn=2-600-03614-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l5MKZTrD1dQC&pg=PA189}}</ref><ref>A few sources state 1857, but the majority state 1858</ref>{{snd}}1 November 1922) was a French journalist and playwright, who was born in Aix-en-Provence and died in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
==Biography== Son of a lawyer from Marseille, Alfred Capus went to university in Toulon. After failing several entrance tests for higher-education schools and working as a draughtsman for a while, he went on to become a journalist.
One of his first articles was an obituary of Darwin.<ref>Barrett H. Clark (1915), ''Contemporary French Dramatists,'' Stewart & Kidd Company, Cincinnati, page 139</ref> He went on to write humorous pieces for papers such as ''Gaulois'', ''L'Écho de Paris'' and ''L'Illustration''. He also wrote for ''Le Figaro'', under the penname of ''Graindorge''. In 1914, he became the editor of ''Figaro''. During the First World War he wrote stridently patriotic pieces.{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}}
On 12 February 1914, he became a member of the Académie française.
==Work and themes== In 1878, in collaboration with L. Vonoven, he published a volume of short stories; the next year the two produced a one-act piece, ''Le Mari malgre lui'', at the Théâtre Cluny.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Capus, Alfred|volume=5|page=296}} This cites Édouard Quet, ''Alfred Capus'' (1904), with appreciations by various authors, in the series of ''Célébrités d'aujourd'hui''.</ref>
His novels, ''Qui perd gagne'' (1890), ''Faux Depart'' (1891), ''Année des d'aventures'' (1895), describe the struggles of three young men at the beginning of their career. From the first of these he took his first comedy, ''Brignol et sa fille'' (Vaudeville, November 23, 1894).<ref name="EB1911"/>
The German film ''Leontine's Husbands'', released in 1928 and starring Claire Rommer, Georg Alexander, Adele Sandrock and Truus van Aalten, was adapted from Capus' 1900 comedy ''Les Maris de Leontine''.
==Bibliography==
===Plays=== *''{{lang|fr|Innocent}}'' (1896), written with Alphonse Allais *''{{lang|fr|Petites folles}}'' (1897) *''{{lang|fr|Rosine}}'' (1897) *''{{lang|fr|Mariage bourgeois}}'' (1898) *''{{lang|fr|Les Maris de Leontine}}'' (1900) *''{{lang|fr|La Bourse ou la vie}}'' (1900) *''{{lang|fr|La Veine}}'' (1901) *''{{lang|fr|La Petite Fonctionnaire}}'' (1901) (the basis of the 1921 comédie musicale ''La petite fonctionnaire'') *''{{lang|fr|Les Deux Ecoles}}'' (1902) *''{{lang|fr|La Châtelaine}}'' (1902) *''{{lang|fr|L'Adversaire}}'' (1903), with Emmanuel Arène, which was produced in London by George Alexander as ''The Man of the Moment'' *''{{lang|fr|Notre Jeunesse}}'' (1904), the first of his plays to be performed at the Théâtre Français *''{{lang|fr|Monsieur Piegois}}'' (1905) *''{{lang|fr|L'Attentat}}'' (1906), written with Lucien Descaves<ref name="EB1911"/>
===Novels=== *''{{lang|fr|Qui perd gagne}}'' (1890) *''{{lang|fr|Faux départ}}'' (1891) *''{{lang|fr|Robinson}}'' (1910)
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-culture}} {{succession box | title=Seat 24<br>Académie française<br>1914–1922 | before=Henri Poincaré | after=Édouard Estaunié | years=}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Capus, Alfred}} Category:1858 births Category:1922 deaths Category:writers from Aix-en-Provence Category:19th-century French novelists Category:20th-century French novelists Category:20th-century French male writers Category:Members of the Académie Française Category:Commanders of the Legion of Honour Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Category:French male novelists Category:19th-century French male writers Category:Le Figaro people