Maurice Leblanc (1864 - 1941) was a French writer. He was born in Rouen, Normandy, and lived in Paris, where he worked as a journalist and writer with moderate success until the creation of the master thief Arsène Lupin. The first story featuring Arsène Lupin appeared in 1905, and thanks to its great success, Leblanc subsequently devoted himself almost entirely to the master thief, publishing several novels and short stories over the course of his career.