Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre was born in 1737 in Le Havre, and died at Éragny in 1814. Bernardin made his literary debut in 1773 with Voyage à l'Île de France. This work brought him to the attention of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose friendship helped to mould the views expressed in Études de la nature, which Bernardin wrote in 1784. To the third edition of Études (1788) he added Paul et Virginie, the story of two island children whose love for each other is spoilt by the interference of civilisation. In a later work, La Chaumière indienne (1790; 'The Indian Cottage'), an English scientist is sent to gather 'des lumières sur toutes les sciences', but discovers wisdom in the home of an Indian outcast. For further details see the Dictionnaire de Biographie Française.

Louis Aimé Martin (1786-1847) was a friend and disciple of Bernardin. Following Bernardin's death he compiled and published his complete works, prefaced by an essay concerning his life and work: Oeuvres complètes de Jacques-Henri-Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: mises en ordre et précédées de la vie de l'auteur, par L. Aimé Martin; Martin also married Bernardin's widow. Martin's own writings included L'Education des mères de familles, ou de la Civilisation du genre humain par les femmes ('The education of mothers of families; or, the civilisation of the human race by women').

Mathieu Molé, son of Édouard Molé, became the first president of the Parlement of Paris in 1641. In 1623, as Attorney General at the Parlement, he arrested and imprisoned Théophile de Viau in la prison de la Conciergerie Molé was unable to support the charges of blasphemy and atheism which had been brought against the poet by the Jesuits. He acted as a conciliator during la Fronde, and after having negotiated the peace of Rueil (1649), he became Minister of Justice from 1651 until his death in 1656.