Ferdinand Lemaire was a librettist and writer. He is best remembered as the librettist for Camille Saint-Saëns's opera "Samson et Delila" (1876). Lemaire was born in Martinique. He was a creole. He married into Saint-Saëns's family. He agreed to write "Samson" but only as opera, rather than as an oratorio as the composer first intended.