Devrien, Alfred

Born 1842 in Lausanne; year and place of death unknown. Russian book publisher.

In the 1860’s Devrien worked for well-known publishing houses in Vienna, Paris, London, and Berlin. In 1872 he founded a book publishing house in St. Petersburg. He published mainly material on agriculture, science, and geography and books for children and young people. The most important publications of Devrien are Complete Encyclopedia of Russian Agriculture in 11 volumes (1900-09); Russia: Complete Geographic Description of Our Homeland, edited by V. P. Semenov-T’an-Shanskii (19 vols., 1899–1914; publication unfinished); K. Keller’s Life of the Sea (1897); and The Animal Life of Europe (3 vols., 1900–02). Devrien’s publications were notable for their high printing standards. In all, he published approximately 1,500 titles. In 1917, Devrien left for Berlin.