Emile Zola (2 April 1840-29 September 1902) was a French author, journalist, and playwright who was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prizes in Literature in 1901 and 1902, and who was otherwise best known for defending the innocent Alfred Dreyfus during the Dreyfus affair of 1894-1906. Born in Paris, Zola was the son of a Venetian engineer and a French mother, and he was raised in Aix-en-Provence and then in Paris from 1858. Zola became a political journalist and opposed Napoleon III; he was a staunch republican, although he was no socialist. He also became known for his advocacy for naturalism and new journalism. On 13 January 1898, at the height of the French Army's anti-Semitic "Dreyfus affair", Zola wrote a newspaper op-ed titled J'accuse, in which he famously accused the highest levels of the army of obstruction of justice and anti-Semitism for wrongfully imprisoning Dreyfus on Devil's Island. On 23 February 1898, Zola was found guilty of "criminal libel" and stripped of the Legion of Honor, but the final judgment was overturned in April on a technicality. Zola fled to England rather than wait for a retrial, and he did not return until 1899. In 1902, he died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an improperly ventilated chimney, and Dreyfus was among the thousands who attended Zola's funeral.