Louis Bastien

Who was Louis Bastien?

Louis Marie Jules Charles Bastien was a French Esperantist and a quartermaster in the French army. In 1899 he married Marguerite Pfulb; the couple had three daughters and two sons. In school he learned mathematics, classical French literature, Latin and Greek and learned to compose Latin verse. After a year of preparatory studies at l'Ecole Sainte-Geneviève in Versailles he entered l'Ecole Polytechnique in 1887 at the age of 17. Not having the maturity of his older classmates, he did not excel in his studies and, on graduation in 1889, had to content himself with a military career.