Théodore Lebreton

• Born — 1 December 1803 • Birthplace — Rouen • Died — 12 December 1883 • Place of death — Rouen • Occupation — Bibliograph Poet Chansonnier

Born as the child of a day laborer father and a washerwoman mother, Lebreton entered at age seven in an indienne factory in his hometown where he was taught the printing trade on fabrics. Barely able to spell, he learned, through perseverance, to read and write and, after a few years, he felt the desire to tell what he felt. Aged fourteen, he had succeeded, through saving his salary to complete his education by going to the theater, to be a great worker and educated in his workshop. The taste of poetry being born in him, he was induced by the inspiration and breathed in to the impressions of his soul, his pains, joys, hopes and loves. Marceline Desbordes-Valmore presented the poet's essays to Le Journal de Rouen and eventually, in 1836, a man of letters from Rouen, Ch. Richard, drew attention on him by writing a sketch of his life as a worker and thinker and contributed to the publication of a collection of his poems. Until then, Lebreton had remained in his workshop but by that time, the city of Rouen having acquired the Leber collection of books, Lebreton was appointed to the newly created position of sub-librarian at Rouen library to administer it. In 1848, Lebreton was elected to represent the Seine-Inférieure department at the Assemblée constituante but wasn't reelected to the Assemblée législative. A religious poet, Lebreton, in his first poems, painted the misery of the worker without seeing no other remedy than resignation on earth and rest in heaven; Later, his outrage took a keener focus without going further. A member of several learned societies, this humble man also published several songbooks in his hometown of Rouen, although he was much better known in Paris. Lebreton's great work is his Biographie normande; recueil de notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les personnages célèbres nés en Normandie et sur ceux qui se sont seulement distingués par leurs actions et par leurs écrits et sa Biographie rouennaise; recueil de notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les personnages célèbres nés à Rouen qui se sont rendus célèbres ou qui se sont distingués à des titres différents. He also wrote Corneille chez le savetier, scène historique de la vie de Pierre Corneille, in collaboration with M. Beuzeville presented at the Théâtre des Arts de Rouen 29 June 1841.