LOTI, PIERRE [the pen-name of LOUIS MARIE JULIEN VIAUD] (1850- ), French author, was born at Rochefort on the 14th of January 1850. The Viauds are an old Protestant family, and Pierre Loti consistently adhered, at least nominally, to the faith of his fathers. Of the picturesque and touching incidents of his childhood he has given a very vivid account in _Le Roman d'un enfant_ (1890). His education began in Rochefort, but at the age of seventeen, being destined for the navy, he entered the naval school, Le Borda, and gradually rose in his profession, attaining the rank of captain in 1906. In January 1910 he was placed on the reserve list. His pseudonym is said to be due to his extreme shyness and reserve in early life, which made his comrades call him after _le Loti_, an Indian flower which loves to blush unseen. He was never given to books or study (when he was received at the French Academy, he had the courage to say, "Loti ne sait pas lire"), and it was not until 1876 that he was persuaded to write down and publish some curious experiences at Constantinople, in _Aziyadé_, a book which, like so many of Loti's, seems half a romance, half an autobiography. He proceeded to the South Seas, and on leaving Tahiti published the Polynesian idyll, originally called _Rarahu_ (1880), which was reprinted as _Le Mariage de Loti_, and which first introduced to the wider public an author of remarkable originality and charm. _Le Roman d'un spahi_, a record of the melancholy adventures of a soldier in Senegambia, belongs to 1881. In 1882 Loti issued a collection of short studies under the general title of _Fleurs d'ennui_. In 1883 he achieved the widest celebrity, for not only did he publish _Mon frère Yves_, a novel describing the life of a French bluejacket in all parts of the world--perhaps his most characteristic production--but he was involved in a public discussion in a manner which did him great credit. While taking part as a naval officer in the Tongking War, Loti had exposed in the _Figaro_ a series of scandals which followed on the capture of Hué (1883), and was suspended from the service for more than a year. He continued for some time nearly silent, but in 1886 he published a novel of life among the Breton fisher-folk, called _Pêcheur d'islande_, the most popular of all his writings. In 1887 he brought out a volume of extraordinary merit, which has not received the attention it deserves; this is _Propos d'exil_, a series of short studies of exotic places, in his peculiar semi-autobiographic style. The fantastic novel of Japanese manners, _Madame Chrysanthème_, belongs to the same year. Passing over one or two slighter productions, we come in 1890 to _Au Maroc_, the record of a journey to Fez in company with a French embassy. A collection of strangely confidential and sentimental reminiscences, called _Le Livre de la pitié et de la mort_, belongs to 1891. Loti was on board his ship at the port of Algiers when news was brought to him of