Alexandre Dumas (born 24 July, 1802 at Villers-Cotterêts, died 5 December 1870 at Dieppe) was a French writer of Haitian descent. He is famous for writing The Three Musketeers (1844), Queen Margot, The Count of Monte Cristo (1844-1845) and about the Man with the iron mask.
Dumas was the son of a general, who fought in the French Revolution. His father died and his mother raised him. They didn't have much money when he was growing up.
Dumas wrote his first plays in 1825 and 1826 after reading Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, Friedrich von Scholler and Lord Byron.
Dumas was also a gourmand (lover of food), and wrote Le Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine, an encyclopædia of food and cooking with 1152 pages. He finished it weeks before his death. It is not thought very reliable, because it relies on Dumas' opinions rather than fact.
Dumas was a member of the Club des Hashischins, or Hashish Club. This group of French writers experimented with hashish to get ideas.