Emile Erckmann (1822- 1899) and Alexandre Chatrian (1826-1890) formed a well-known duo for many decades, which achieved fame under the name Erckmann-Chatrian. Born in Lorraine, they began their congenial collaboration during their studies. Erckmann-Chatrian achieved their first successes in the early 1860s with fantastic stories such as Requiem du corbeau (1856), Le Cabaliste Hans Weinland (1860) and the short novel Hugues-le-Loup (1860). From 1885 onwards, the two increasingly fell out over copyright and royalty issues.