Jean Psichari (Giannis Psycharis, 1854-1929) was born in Odessa (Ukraine) and, as of 1867, lived in Paris (France) where he studied Philology and Linguistics. In 1867 he was appointed professor of Medieval and Modern Greek Letters (from 1903 to 1929 at the École des Langues Orientales Vivantes). He was an extreme demoticist and wrote novels, short stories, poems and plays, in Greek, French and Italian. He was involved in the Dreyfus affair, contributing to the revision of the trial, and lost his two sons during World War I.