Victor Sejour Follow

On June 2, 1817 Juan Victor Séjour was born in New Orleans to François Marcou, a free mulatto father from Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and Eloisa Philippe Ferrand, a New Orleans quadroon. His parents were wealthy, and had him educated in a private school. At the age of nineteen he moved to Paris to continue his education and find work. There he met members of the Parisian literary elite, including Cyrille Bissette, publisher of the black-owned journal La Revue des Colonies. Bisette published "Le Mulâtre", Séjour's first work, in 1837. A popular playwright of huis time, he once had three plays running at the same time in Paris. The Fortune Teller is considered one of his best plays.

Translator Norman R. Shapiro is a renowned translator of poetry and plays from the French.. His books and awards are numerous and he was recently decorated by the French government for his service to the history of French literature.

M. Lynn Weiss is associate professor of American studies at the College of William and Mary. This is her third collaboration with Norman R. Shapiro, and the second of Sejour's plays, the other being the Jew of Seville, also published by Second Line Press.