Louis Honoré Fréchette

Louis-Honoré Fréchette, CMG (November 16, 1839 – May 31, 1908), was a Canadian poet, politician, playwright, and short story writer.

Biography

Born in Lévis, Lower Canada, from 1854 to 1860 Fréchette did his classical studies at the Séminaire de Québec, the Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière and at the Séminaire de Nicolet. He later studied law at Université Laval.

In 1864, he opened a lawyer's office in Lévis where he founded two newspapers: Le drapeau de Lévis and La Tribune de Levis. He exiled himself in Chicago where he wrote La voix d'un exilé. A number of plays which he wrote during that period were lost in the Great Chicago Fire.

Soon after he returned home in 1874, he was elected Member of Parliament in Ottawa. He served in the Canadian House of Commons from 1874 to 1878 as the Liberal Party of Canada member from Lévis.He was not re-elected in 1878. After that, he moved to Montreal where he began writing full-time, having inherited the wealth of his aunt when she died.

He was the first Quebecer to receive the Montyon Prize of the Académie française for his collection of poems Les Fleurs boréales, les oiseaux de neige (1879).

In 1881, he was given an honorary LLD by Queen's College, Kingston. In 1897 he was created a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.

Canada Post issued a postage stamp in his honour on July 7, 1989.

In 1991, Louis Honoré Fréchette Public School, opened in Thornhill, Ontario.

Notable works
Poetry

La voix d'un exilé (1866)
La découverte du Mississippi (1873)
Pêle-mêle (1877)
La Légende d'un peuple (1877)
Poésies choisies (1879)
Les Fleurs boréales, les oiseaux de neige (1879)

Short stories

L'Iroquoise du lac Saint-Pierre (1861)
Originaux et détraqués (1892), based on real life characters
Les contes de Jos Violon
Christmas in French Canada (1899)

Plays

Le retour de l'exilé (1880)
Papineau (1880)
La retour de l'exilé (1880)
Félix Poutré (1892)