Pierre Souvestre, in his short lifetime, wore many hats. He was a lawyer, a journalist, a businessman, an organizer of motor races and, of course, an author. By the early 1900's, Souvestre - already an established writer of technical manuals and short fiction, including poetry and an early novel - took on Marcel Allain (also a lawyer and journalist) as an assistant. Almost immediately, the two men began to collaborate on potential writing projects. In 1909, they published their first novel together: "Le Rour," which featured the character of Investigating Magistrate Germain Fuselier (later to become a recurring character in the Fantômas series). In 1911, however, Souvestre and Allain rocketed to worldwide fame with the creation of the book "Fantômas," which has as its title character an infamous and merciless international criminal. The book soon became a publishing sensation. The immense popularity of Fantômas drove the two men to begin cranking out sequels at an astonishing rate. By the time Souvestre died of consumption in 1914 - only three years after the creation of Fantômas - they had written thirty-two additional books in the series. After Souvestre's death, Allain would go on to create an another eleven Fantômas novels and - in between writing projects - oversaw the production of numerous movies, television dramas and other adaptations of Fantômas for the rest of his life.