Keratry, Auguste Hilarion, Comte De
KERATRY, AUGUSTE HILARION, COMTE DE (1760-1859), French writer and politician, was born at Rennes on the 28th of December 1769. Coming to Paris in 1790, he associated himself with Bernardin de St Pierre. After being twice imprisoned during the Terror he retired to Brittany, where he devoted himself to literature till 1814. In 1818 he returned to Paris as deputy for Finistere, and sat in the Chamber till 1824, becoming one of the recognized liberal leaders. He was re-elected in 1827, took an active part in the establishment of the July monarchy, was appointed^ a councillor of state (1830), and in 1837 was made a peer of France. After the coup d'etat of 1851 he retired from public life. Among his publications were Contes el Idylles (1791); Lysus et Cydippe, a poem (1801); Inductions morales et physiologiques (1817); Documents pour servir a I'histoire de France (1820); Du Beau dans les arts d'imitation (1822); Le Dernier des Beaumanoir (1824). His last work, Clarisse (1854), a novel, was written when he was eighty-five. He died at Port-Marly on the 7th of November 1859.
His son, comte Emile de Keratry (1832- ), became deputy for Finistere in 1869, and strongly supported the war with Germany in 1870. He was in Paris during part of the siege, but escaped in a balloon, and joined Gambetta. In 1871 Thiers appointed him to the prefecture, first of the Haute-Garonne, and subsequently of the Bouches-du-Rhone, but he resigned in the following year. He is the author of La Contre-gueritta francaise au Mexique (1868) ; L' Elevation et la chute de I'empereur Maximilien (1867); Le Quatre-septembre et le gouiiernement de la defense nationale (1872); Mourad V. (1878), and some volumes of memories.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
