Frédéric Plessis

The recorded working language is French. Employment is recorded with University of Paris. Work by Frédéric Plessis is recorded in the collections of Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes. Distinctions recorded are prix Archon-Despérouses, Knight of the Legion of Honour, Officer of the Legion of Honour and Montyon Prize.

• Birth Name — Frédéric Édouard Plessis • Born — 3 February 1851 • Birthplace — Brest, France • Died — 29 January 1942 • Place of death — Paris, France

The Plessis family originates from Côtes d'Armor. His father, Édouard-Henri-Joseph Plessis, a naval surgeon, was born in Saint-Brieuc. His mother Marie-Louise Brunot was born in Guingamp. They married in Guingamp in November 1846. Marie-Louise Plessis, née Brunot, was the daughter of a subprefect of Guingamp. Well-educated, she had a great literary influence on her son Frédéric.

Plessis was born in Brest, on February 3, 1851. He lived in Brest until he was thirteen years old. A brilliant and serious student, he had good grades, particularly in Latin. In 1864, the Plessis family moved from Brest to Paris. Plessis was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, receiving his baccalaureate two years later.

After his baccalaureate, Plessis began studies in medicine, as his father did, at the University of Paris. After one year, he decided that he did not want to pursue this path. He then applied to the department of law at the University of Rennes. But the study of law did not satisfy him either, so he decided to study the humanities. In 1878, he received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Clermont-Ferrand, where he formed friendships with Emmanuel des Essarts and Pierre de Nolhac. He took the courses of Eugène Benoist and linguist Michel Bréal. In 1884, he defended his dissertation for a degree of Doctor of the Arts, entitled Études critiques sur Properce et ses élégies. Included in this dissertation were six photographs of the Codex Neapolitanus of Propertius which he took while he was in Wolfenbüttel, Germany.

In 1880, Plessis began his career in higher education. He taught Latin and Latin literature in different French universities: Poitiers, from 1880 to 1884; Caen, from 1884 to 1887; Bordeaux, from 1887 to 1891; and Lyon, from 1891 to 1892. He was named docent at the École normale supérieure, where he taught courses from 1894 to 1907. In 1905, he obtained the position of chair of Latin poetry at Sorbonne University, which he occupied until his retirement, in 1922. He produced a number of translations and Latin works (Terence, Propertius, Cicero, Virgil, Horace), dealing mainly in Latin poetry.

He died in his house in Paris. He is buried in the Vaugirard Cemetery.

Plessis married Berthe Le Carpentier in Caen in 1883. They had five children.

• 1886: La Lampe d'argile, poésies, 1873–1886, Alphonse Lemerre • 1897: Vesper, poésies (1886–1896), Alphonse Lemerre • 1904: Poésies complètes: 1873–1903, containing: La Lampe d'Argile, Vesper and Gallica, Alphonse Lemerre • 1921: La Couronne de lierre, poésies, 1904–1920, Jouve • 1937: La Couronne de lierre, poésies, 1904–1934. New edition, reviewed and changed

• 1873?: Madame de Jonquière, in La Patrie • 1875: Les Étrennes malencontreuses, published in the review Le Siècle littéraire • 1896 et 1897: Angèle de Blindes, in La Revue des deux mondes, afterwards by Alphonse Lemerre • 1897: Indépendante. Les souvenirs de Valentine • 1897: Le Mariage de Léonie, published in La Revue pour les jeunes filles, afterwards by Alphonse Lemerre • 1897: Le Psychologue (novella) • 1902: Le Chemin montant, in Minerva, afterwards with Fontemoing • 1911: Saint-Exupère-les-Châsses, at first in Le Mois, afterwards by Maison de la Bonne Presse, published in the form of a serial in the daily newspaper L'Action française from to 20 July 1933 • 1923: Caroline Gévrot, first in La Revue universelle, afterwards by Perrin • 1928: La Petite Fanny (with Rose et Rosine), unfinished manuscript of a novel • 1930: Le Clos Varin, first in La Revue universelle, afterwards by Éditions de la Vraie France • 1933: Muse de Follepensée, published in the Revue universelle • 1938: Rose et Rosine, published in L'Action française • Date unknown: Une attaque de diligence (1857) – unedited • Date unknown: Marie – unedited • Date unknown: Édith Sarmaise – unedited • Date unknown: Madame Darnac – unedited • Date unknown: Arrivisme ou Une jeune tante – unedited • Date unknown: Pions et Pharisiens – unedited