Amédée Guillemin



Amédée Guillemin (born 5 July 1826 in Pierre-de-Bresse, died 2 January 1893 in Pierre-de-Bresse, France) was a French science writer and a journalist.

Guillemin started his studies at Beaune college before taking his final degree in Paris. From 1850 to 1860 he taught mathematics in a private school while writing articles for the Liberal press criticizing the Second French Empire. In 1860, he moved to Chambéry where he became a junior deputy editor of the weekly political magazine La Savoie. After the annexation of Savoy by the French empire, he returned to Paris where he became the science editor of l’Avenir national (The Nation's Future).

Guillemin presently started writing books of physics and astronomy which became very popular. He wrote "The Sky" which was translated into many languages. His major work, "The Physical World", consisted of five large volumes. His publisher, Hachette, encouraged him to write a series of  booklets about astronomy and physics under the title "Small popular encyclopaedia", a scientifically sound but accessible collection about sciences and their applications. French astronomer Jacques Crovisier from the Observatoire de Paris suggests he may have been a source of inspiration for Jules Verne's 1865 novel, From the Earth to the Moon.