Citizen de Sade

A writer, formerly a marquis

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade is a writer famous for his often graphic, brutal erotic writing, which gave rise to the word ‘sadism’. De Sade was born to an ancient noble family and attended Louise-le-Grand school. A series of sexual and violent scandals made him infamous and sent him in and out of various prisons, where he took up writing plays and novels. While imprisoned in Vincennes he encountered the Comte de Mirabeau. Locked up in the Bastille, he shouted from the windows that warders are killing the prisoners and was shortly transferred to the Charenton insane asylum, leaving behind the draft of his first major novel, 120 Days of Sodom.

After his release in 1790, he launched a career as a writer, publishing the novel Justine in 1791, and became involved in Revolutionary politics. In 1792 he is secretary of the Revolutionary Section of Les Piques in Paris.

The only known portrait of the Marquis de Sad. He was 19 years old.

Marquis de Sade | Britannica 
Who’s afraid of the Marquis de Sade? | BBC
Who Was the Marquis de Sade? | Smithsonian 
Marquis de Sade - Wikipedia