Abbé Claude-Joseph Drioux (1820-1898) was a French priest, popular educator, cartographer, geographer, historian, and religious writer. Drioux was born 17 February 1820 at Bourdons, Haute-Marne. Drioux trained as a Priest before becoming a professor at the seminary of Langres. Drioux was the "star author" of the publishers Eugene Belin. The 51 school textbooks of the Abbé Drioux were enormously popular throughout France and went through some thirty editions with over 20 million volumes sold. According to the Dictionnaire de Biographie Française, "they almost had a monopoly on the education of children of both sexes in the free institutions both primary and secondary." Drioux built his success on distilling contemporary German scientific and academic discoveries, the most advanced in the world at the time, for the French audience. As a geographer Drioux worked primarily with cartographer Charles Leroy. Drioux publishing success allowed him to purchase the magnificent Chateau de Lanty Nièvre, Bourgogne, France, former property of the Marquise de Coligny, where he died 13 May 1898.