From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: According to M. Édouard Fournier, Dumas in 1820, at the age of seventeen, while still a notary's clerk at Villers Cotterets, composed an ode for the Academy competitions, the subject being "The Devotion of Malesherbes." Apparently now lost, and not printed.
Talvart et Place say this is by Joseph Dumas of Lyons; Quérard says Alexandre Dumas; Th. Muret also (in 1835) says the latter.
Reference :—
Fournier: "Souvenirs Poétiques de l'École Romantique : 1825 à 1840," page 129.
