Leon Blum

Lon Blum (9 April 1872 - 30 March 1950), French socialist leader and Prime Minister, was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Paris where he attended the lyce Henri IV. There he met the writer Andr Gide and published his first poems at the age of 17 in a journal they created. Blum entered the prestigious cole Normale Suprieure in 1890. After graduation, he wavered between studying law and literature. Rather than choose between them, he decided to study both at the Sorbonne and graduated in literature in 1891 and in law in 1894. He then worked as a government lawyer while developing a second career as a literary critic, in particular as an authority on Goethe. He soon became one of France's leading literary figures.