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Louis Honore Frechette

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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LOUIS HONORE FRECHETTE (1839-1908), French-Canadian poet, was born at Levis, Quebec, on the 16th of November 1839, the son of a contractor. He was educated in his native province, and called to the Canadian bar in 1864. He started the Journal de Levis, and his revolutionary doctrines compelled him to leave Canada for the United States. After some years spent in journalism at Chicago, he was in 1874 elected as the Liberal candidate to represent Levis in the Canadian parliament. At the elections of 1878 and 1882 he was defeated, and thereafter confined himself to literature. He edited La Patrie and other French papers in the Dominion; and in 1889 was appointed clerk of the Quebec legislative council. He was long a warm advocate of the political union of Canada and the United States, but in later life became less ardent, and in 1897 accepted the honour of C.M.G. from Queen Victoria. He was president of the Royal Society of Canada, and of the Canadian Society of Arts, and received numerous honorary degrees. His works include: Mes Loisirs (1863); La Voix d'un exile (1867), a satire against the Canadian government; boreales, and Les Oiseaux de neige (1880), crowned by the French academy; La Legende d'un peuple (1887); two historical dramas, Papineau (1880) and Felix Poutre (1880); La Noel au Canada (1900), and several prose works and translations. An exponent of local French sentiment, he won the title of the "Canadian Laureate." He died on the 1st of June 1908.