Jean de La Fontaine was a French fabulist, poet, and playwright who also worked as a librettist and children's writer.

Born in Château-Thierry — the record gives contested dates, with sources pointing variously to 1620 or 1621 — La Fontaine was educated at the College of Juilly and later trained as a lawyer. He held citizenship of the Kingdom of France and wrote in the French language. He died in Paris on April 13, 1695, and the Library of Congress authorizes his name as "La Fontaine, Jean de, 1621–1695."

La Fontaine worked across multiple genres, including the tale and the play, and his role as a librettist points to a range of written forms. The fable, however, is the genre most firmly attached to him by the record — he's identified as a fabulist, and the fable is listed as a primary genre in his output. That consistent association with the fable, alongside his work as a children's writer, defines the clearest picture the available facts give us of his writing life.