Georges Charpentier (22 December 1846-15 November 1905) was a French publisher who, by the 1890s, was the most successful publisher in Paris as the patron of Emile Zola and Renoir. He played a role in coordinating support for the wrongfully accused Jewish artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus during the Dreyfus affair.
Biography[]
Georges Charpentier was born in Paris, France on 22 December 1846, and he inherited his father's publishing house in 1872 and defined himself as the "publisher of the naturalists", publishing the works of authors such as Emile Zola. By the 1890s, Charpentier was the biggest publisher in Paris, and, in 1897, during the Dreyfus affair, Charpentier introduced the disgraced French Army officer and "Dreyfusard" investigator Georges Picquart to his political allies Senator Arthur Ranc and Deputy Joseph Reinach, the liberal publisher Georges Clemenceau, the industrialist Mathieu Dreyfus, Alfred Dreyfus' brother, and the author Emile Zola. Charpentier died in 1905.