Brother of an architect who worked on one of his country's most famous buildings, this government official helped create a new genre of literature by putting into print a collection of oral tales under a name that is now familiar to children throughout the western world. Who was this man and to whom were the stories credited? Oh, and what is that building?

gmackematix

Charles Perrault (of "Cinderella" fame) had a brother called Claude who worked on the Louvre, apparently. Apr 23 06, 8:01 PM

gmackematix

Incidentally, Mother Goose was not so much used as a pseudonym, but "comtes de la mere d'oye" or "mother goose stories" was a French synonym for "Fairy tales". This French phrase has been found as early as 1597, predating Perrault. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Mother+Goose Apr 23 06, 8:15 PM

gmackematix

Pardon my French. I meant "contes de ma mere l'oye" (can't do the accent). While I'm posting again. Here is Monsieur Perrault's wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Perrault Apr 23 06, 8:19 PM

lanfranco

A yay to you, gmack! And I didn't mean to suggest that "Mother Goose" was a pseudonym, merely that the fairy tales were published as being traditionally "hers," though they were actually presented as being the sort of thing that an old grandmother might tell in her kitchen -- with suitably sophisticated embellishments for an aristocratic audience. Amusingly, however, some people have attempted to claim that there was a real "Mother Goose": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Goose Apr 23 06, 8:26 PM