Jean d'Emaileux

Mon dieu, c'est un email! Pense que l'email va changer le monde!

Jean d'Emaileux (1808-1902) was a French essayist, hawker, and inventor. Today he is considered to have been the true inventor of the email, despite the credit for this invention having been claimed by John the Email.

Early life

Jean was born in the Emaileux region of France to parents Renauld and Marguerite d’Emaileux.

Homosexual affairs

Throughout his time at the University of Poitiers, d’Emaileux gained a reputation for being romantically involved with other men. Though he denied such claims, he would write and publish essays on the subjects of personal liberation, sexual freedom, and how cool it is to kiss other men, to wide acclaim.

Volume III of d’Emaileux’s diaries, all of which were published posthumously, contains the details of his homosexual relationships.

Invention and theft of the email

For many years, d’Emaileux was frustrated by the great amount of time it took to communicate by post, and often noted down ideas for expedited forms of communication, none of which came to fruition. One notable example was his idea for le telegraphe dansant, a kind of semaphore signal system wherein messages were communicated by voguing.

Dispute with John the Email

Main article: Email feud

Illness and death

So great was the stress inflicted by John the Email’s betrayal that d’Emaileux began to suffer from cardiac and respiratory issues in what would turn out to be the last few years of his life. Jean d’Emaileux died at the age of