Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle has immortalized him, "La Marseillaise", was composed at Strasbourg, where Rouget de Lisle was garrisoned in April 1792. France had just declared war on Austria, and the mayor of Strasbourg, baron Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, held a dinner for the officers of the garrison, at which he lamented that France had no national anthem. Rouget de Lisle returned to his quarters and wrote the words in a fit of patriotic excitement. The piece was at first called "Chant de guerre pour l'armée du Rhin" ("War Song for the Army of the Rhine") and only received its name of "Marseillaise" from its
Leconte de Lisle writing two democratically-oriented books entitled "A People's History of the French Revolution" and "A People's History of Christianity", respectively. These works earned him a post as Assistant Librarian at the Luxembourg Palace in 1873; in 1886 he was elected to the French Academy, in succession to Victor Hugo. Leconte de Lisle died at Voisins in the township of Louveciennes, to the west of Paris. As well as poetry, Leconte de Lisle produced a number of theatrical plays, lyrical works, translations, and historical works. His works are shown below, in chronological order. Leconte de Lisle Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle