Louis-Honoré Fréchette

Louis-Honoré Fréchette studied at Laval University. The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is Canadian literature in French and Canadian poetry. Places of work recorded in the authority are Ottawa. Positions recorded include chairperson and member of the House of Commons of Canada. Work by Louis-Honoré Fréchette is recorded in the collections of Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Distinctions recorded are Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, Montyon Prize, honorary doctorate at the Laval University and Person of National Historic Significance.

• Name — Louis-Honoré Fréchette • Born — 16 November 1839 • Birthplace — Lévis, Lower Canada • Died — 31 May 1908 • Occupation — poet, playwright, short story writer • Awards — Prix Montyon, CMG

Fréchette was born on November 16, 1839, 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. Fréchette first showed his rebelliousness when he studied at college. He later studied law at Université Laval.

In 1864, he opened a lawyer's office in Lévis and founded two newspapers: Le drapeau de Lévis and La Tribune de Levis. He exiled himself to 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. Fréchette returned to Quebec in 1871, where he was a Liberal candidate for Lévis in the provincial elections that year; he was not elected. However, in 1874, he was elected a Member of Parliament in Ottawa. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1874 to 1878 as a 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 his aunt's wealth 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, Queen's College, Kingston, honored him with LLD. In that same year, Fréchette would meet Mark Twain in Montreal, whose writing he had much admired; indeed, the two would remain friends, exchanging works and favorite books. In the following year, Twain would toast Fréchette at an American welcoming banquet in Holyoke, joking about his regard for the translation of works that, in his fictitious "translation his [Fréchette's] pathetic poems have naturally become humorous, his humorous poems have become sad. Anybody who knows even the rudiments of arithmetic will know that Monsieur Fréchette's poems are now worth exactly twice as much as they were before." In 1897, Fréchette was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. After he died in 1908, he was entombed at the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery in Montreal. Canada Post issued a postage stamp in his honour on July 7, 1989. In 1991, Louis Honoré Fréchette Public School, a French immersion school, opened in Thornhill, Ontario.

• 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) • Quebec (1887)

• 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)

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

The authorities additionally record the headings Louis Fréchette, Louis Honoré Fréchette, Louis-Honore Frechette, Louis Frechette and Louis Honore Frechette. His recorded language was French.

Louis-Honoré Fréchette worked in Canadian literature in French and Canadian poetry. His work is associated with Romanticism. Recorded positions include chairperson and member of the House of Commons of Canada. He belonged to Royal Society of Canada. He worked at Ottawa.

Louis-Honoré Fréchette is recorded as having received Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, Montyon Prize and honorary doctorate at the Laval University. Within the Encyclopedia. Connected to 1 other published record in the VALÉORINE Encyclopedia.

There is a Louis-Honoré Fréchette fonds at Library and Archives Canada. Archival reference number is R8032. There is also a Louis-Honoré Fréchette fonds at Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.