You'll Never Guess Who Was A Science Fiction Author

Doing research for this site, I came across an interesting fact. Did you know that one of the earliest Science Fiction authors was Cyrano de Bergerac. Yes he was a real person.

Savien Cyrano de Bergerac French soldier, satirist and dramatist, who has been the basis of many romantic but unhistorical legends. Best known of them is Edmond Rostand's stage play Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) which describes adventures of the 17th century nobleman, known for his large nose and swordsmanship, 
and who loves desperately beautiful Roxane. 

The real Cyrano de Bergerac had, in real life, very little in common with the hero of the Rostand play. He was born in Paris, and educated by a a priest in the village of Bergerac. Later he was sent to the Collège de Beauvais. After acquiring fame as a dueller and Bohemian, he enlisted the army at the age of 20. He was severely wounded twice, once at a fight with Gascon Guard, and at the siege of Arras in 1640. In the following year he gave up his military career and started to study under the philosopher and mathematician Pierre Gassendi. Influenced by Gassendi's theories and libertine philosophy, he wrote stories of imaginary journeys to the Moon and Sun, and satirized views which saw humanity and the Earth as the center of creation. Most notably a novel called "Other worlds: The comical history of the states and empires of the moon and sun"