André Léon-Noël illustrator, writer and journalist, co-founded with Alfred Francey a short-lived but luxurious publication, Le Livre d’or (1839). Nadar was their editor-in-chief. Léon-Noël divided his time between Orleans and Paris, between drawing lessons and journalism (Le Siècle, L’Événement, Le Magasin pittoresque, La Semaine, etc.), although he was more likely to freelance than to be on staff.
Léon-Noël's life was fairly emblematic of how difficult things could be for men of letters, so in the 1870s, Nadar would leave him in charge of the photography studio on Rue d’Anjou during his own absences. The rest of the time, Ernestine Nadar ran things with an iron fist. Léon-Noël was one of the three "water drinkers" who signed Histoire de Mürger pour servir à l'histoire de la vraie bohème (A Story of Mürger to Serve the History of True Bohemia in 1862. Nadar dedicated L’Hôtellerie des coquecigrues (1880) "To Léon-Noël, poet and illustrator, who lived simply, died anonymously and who was so worthy."