GERAULT-RICHARD

gerault-richard, alfred leon (1860- ), french journalist and politician, was born at bonnetable in the department of sarthe, of a peasant family. he began life as a working upholsterer, first at mans, then at paris (1880), where his peasant and socialist songs soon won him fame in the montmartre quarter. lissagaray, the communist, offered him a position on _la bataille_, and he became a regular contributor to the advanced journals, especially to _la petite republique_, of which he became editor-in-chief in 1897. in 1893 he founded _le chambard_, and was imprisoned for a year (1894) on account of a personal attack upon the president, casimir-perier. in january 1895 he was elected to the chamber as a socialist for the thirteenth arrondissement of paris. he was defeated at the elections of 1898 at paris, but was re-elected in 1902 and in 1906 by the colony of guadeloupe.