Michel de Montaigne

Michel de Montaigne was a French writer, thinker and public official born in 1533 at the Château de Montaigne, in the Kingdom of France. He trained in law, served as a magistrate in Bordeaux and later as mayor of that city, and he moved through the political and religious conflicts of his age as a moderate and a negotiator. In his late thirties he withdrew to his estate to read, reflect and write. The result was the Essays, first published in 1580 and revised and enlarged until his death in 1592. In them he examines himself, friendship, death, education, custom, cruelty and the limits of human knowledge, in a frank and conversational voice. He is often seen as the founder of the modern essay. His doubt, curiosity and honest self-portrait have influenced writers and thinkers for more than four centuries, and they still make him an easy and companionable author to read.