Edmond Rostand (Playwright of Cyrano de Bergerac) was born April 1, 1868, and died December 2, 1918. He was a French poet and playwright associated with Neo-Classicism.  His most popular creations, then and now, are Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) and Les Romanesques (1894), which you may know more readily as the musical, The Fantasticks. Born in Marseille to a wealthy family, Edmond studied the arts in college in Paris.  He wrote against the Realism grain of the stage period and attracted the actor Sarah Bernhardt to his work. His Cyrano was a celebrated smash from the beginning, playing 300 consecutive nights and rivaling the popularity of Hugo’s dramatic verse plays. The historical person named Cyrano of the 17th Century was Rostand’s childhood hero for his idealism and courage. Rostand became the youngest writer ever to be elected to the Acadème Francaise. The creator of at least a dozen plays, Rostand died prematurely in France during its flu pandemic. He left his poet wife and two sons.