"The Opera ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants or the concierge. Yes, he existed in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete appearance of a real phantom; that is to say, of a spectral shade." Gaston Leroux (May 6, 168-April 15 1927) was a French journalist and author famous for his writing of The Phantom of the Opera. Destined to adaption on stage and screen, the novel began as a newspaper serialization in Le Gaulois from 23 September 1909, to 8 January 1910. This translation is from the first english, American publication in 1911. This translation is by Alexander Teixeiros de Mattos, from this first English edition.