Anne Hébert
Canadian author and poet
Anne Hébert CC OQ (pronounced [an eˈbɛʁ] in French) (August 1, 1916 – January 22, 2000), was a Canadian author and poet. She won Canada's top literary honor, the Governor General's Award , three times, twice for fiction and once for poetry.
Early life
Hébert was born in Sainte-Catherine-de-Fossambault (name later changed to Sainte-Catherine-de-Portneuf, and in 1984 to Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier ), Quebec . Her father, Maurice Hébert , was a poet and literary critic. [1] She was a cousin and childhood friend of modernist poet Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau . [2] She began writing poems and stories at a young age.
Career
By the time she was in her early twenties, Hébert's work had been published in a number of periodicals. [3] Her first collection of poems, Les Songes en Équilibre , was published in 1942. In it she writes of herself as existing in solitude in a "dreamlike torpor". [4] It received positive reviews and won her the Prix David .
Saddened by the 1943 death of her thirty-one-year-old cousin, Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, and by the death of her only sister Marie in 1952, Hébert's poetry became filled with images of death and drowning." [5] No Quebec publisher would publish her 1945 collection of stories, Le Torrent . It was finally published in 1950 at the expense of Roger Lemelin. [3] The provocative tales were considered shocking at the time, but later grew in popularity. [4]
Hébert was affiliated with Canada's first film bureau. She worked for Radio Canada , Film Board of Canada and National Film Board of Canada during the 1950s. [2]
Again, she could not find a publisher for her second book of anguish-filled poetry, Le Tombeau des rois (The Tomb of Kings), and had to publish it at her own expense in 1953. [3] In 1954 Hébert used a grant from the Royal Society of Canada to move to Paris , thinking that the city would be more receptive to her writing. [3]
Les Chambres de bois (1958), her first novel, was a passionate story which depicted violence and brutality through evocative imagery. [4] Hébert was one of the first Québécois writers to experiment in her work with the expression of alienation and rebellion, rather than realistic narration and discussion." [5]
In 1960 during Québec's Quiet Revolution , Hébert published Mystère de la parole , a new collection of poems about more down-to-earth subjects than her previous work. [ citation needed ]
Hébert's 1970 novel Kamouraska combines two romantic yet suspenseful stories and is set in 19th-century Québec. [4]
Hébert returned to Canada in the 1990s. Her last novel Un Habit de lumière was published in 1998.
Hébert died of bone cancer on January 22, 2000, in Montreal . [6]
Recognition
Hébert's first book of poetry, Les Songes en Équilibre , won Quebec's Prix David . [3] She won the Prix France-Canada and the Ludger-Duvernay Prize in 1958 for Les chambres de bois . [7]
Hébert was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1960. [4]
Her Poèmes (a reprinting of Le Tombeau des rois , coupled with a section of new poems, Mystère de la parole ) won the Governor General's Award for poetry in 1960 . She twice won the Governor General's Award for fiction, for her novels Les enfants du sabbat ( 1975 ) and L'enfant chargé des songes ( 1992 ). [5]
She won the Molson Prize in 1967. [8]
Hébert won France's Prix de librairies for her 1970 novel Kamouraska and its Prix Fémina for her 1982 novel Les fous de Bassan . Both books have also been made into movies, Kamouraska in 1973 directed by Claude Jutra , and Les fous de Bassan in 1986 by Yves Simoneau . [4] Kamouraska also won the Grand Prix of the Académie royale de la langue françaises de Belgique. [5]
Hébert's work has been translated into at least seven languages, including English, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. The First Garden, the English translation of Le premier jardin , won the Félix Antoine-Savard Prize for Translation in 1991, [7]
L'école Anne-Hébert, opened in Vancouver in 1983, is an elementary school that offers instruction from kindergarten through grade 6 in French only. [9]
In 2013, documentary filmmaker Michel Langlois released Anne des vingt jours , a biographical documentary about Hébert. [10]
Commemorative postage stamp
On September 8, 2003, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Library of Canada , Canada Post released a special commemorative series, "The Writers of Canada", with a design by Katalina Kovats, featuring two English-Canadian and two French-Canadian stamps. Three million stamps were issued. The two French-Canadian authors used were Hébert and her cousin, Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau . [11]
Publications
Novels
- Les chambres de bois . (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1958), ISBN 2-02-008805-3 – The Silent Rooms (1974, translated by Kathy Mezei)
- Kamouraska (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1970.), ISBN 2-02-031429-0 – Kamouraska (1974, translated by Norman Shapiro)
- Les enfants du sabbat . (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1975), ISBN 2-02-006564-9 – Children of the Black Sabbath (1977, translated by Carol Dunlop-Hébert)
- Heloise (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1980.), ISBN 2-02-005462-0 –
- Les fous de Bassan – (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1982.), ISBN 2-02-006243-7 – In the Shadow of the Wind (Toronto: Anansi, 1983; translated by Sheila Fischman)
- Le premier jardin . (Paris: Seuil, 1988.), ISBN 2-02-009974-8 – The First Garden (Toronto: Anansi, 1991; translated by Sheila Fischman)
- L'enfant chargé de songes . (Paris : Editions du Seuil, 1992), ISBN 2-02-015374-2 – The Burden of Dreams (Toronto: Anansi, 1994; translated by Sheila Fischman)
- Est-ce que je te dérange? ) – (1998) – Am I disturbing you? (Anansi, 1999; translated by Sheila Fischman)
- Un habit de lumière . (Paris : Editions du Seuil, 1999.), ISBN 2-02-036742-4 – A Suit of Light . (Toronto: Anansi, 2000, translated by Sheila Fischman)
- Collected Later Novels . (Toronto: Anansi, 2003, translated by Sheila Fischman), ISBN 0-88784-671-8
Poetry
- Les songes en equilibre – (1942)
- Le tombeau des rois ( The Tomb of the Kings ) – (1953)
- Poèmes ( Poems ) – (1960) – Poems by Anne Hébert (Don Mills, ON: Musson Book Co., 1975, translated by Alan Brown)., ISBN 0-7737-1007-8
- Selected Poems – (1987) – Selected Poems (1987)
- Le jour n'a d'égal que la nuit (Québec : Boréal, [1992]), ISBN 2-89052-519-8 Day Has No Equal But the Night (Toronto: Anansi, 1997; translated by Lola Lemire Tostevin)
- Oeuvre poétique. (1993) [ citation needed ]
- Poèmes pour la main gauche – ([Montréal]: Boréal, [1997]), ISBN 2-89052-823-5
Short stories and novellas
- Le torrent . (1950), ISBN 2-89406-033-5 – The Torrent (1973, translated by Gwendolyn Moore)
- Aurélien, Clara, Mademoiselle et le Lieutenant anglais. (1995) ISBN 2-02-023670-2 Aurélien, Clara, Mademoiselle, and the English Lieutenant (Toronto: Anansi, 1996; translated by Sheila Fischman)
- Est-ce que je te dérange? (Paris : Editions du Seuil, 1998), ISBN 2-02-032310-9 – Am I Disturbing You? (Toronto: Anansi, 1999; translated by Sheila Fischman)
Theater
- La Mercière assassinée – (The Murdered Shopkeeper, translated by Eugene Benson and Renate Benson, Canadian Drama/L'Art dramatique Canadien , vol. 10, no.2 (1984).)
- Le temps sauvage – (1956) – (The Unquiet State, translated by Eugene Benson and Renate Benson, Canadian Drama/L'Art dramatique Canadien , vol. 14, no. 2 (1988).)
- Les Invités au Procès – (The Guests on Trial, translated by Eugene Benson and Renate Benson, Canadian Drama/L'Art dramatique Canadien , vol. 9, no.1 (1983).)
- La cage suivi de L'île de la demoiselle – (1990) – (The Cage and L'Île de la demoiselle, translated by Pamela Grant, Gregory J. Reid, and Sheila Fischman, (2010).)
Film scripts
- L'Éclusier ( Lock-keeper ) – (1953)
- The Charwoman – (1954)
- Midinette ( Needles and Pins ) – (1955)
- La Canne à pêche – (1959)
- Saint-Denys Garneau – (1960)
- L'Étudiant – (1961)
- Kamouraska – (1973)
- Les Fous de Bassan – (1987)
References
Notes
- ↑ " Anne Hebert Biography ," Dictionary of Literary Biography , Bookrags.com, Web, April 26, 2011.
- 1 2 Liukkonen, Petri. "Anne Hébert" . Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) . Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on January 26, 2009.
- 1 2 3 4 5 " Anne Hébert Archived August 26, 2012, at the Wayback Machine ," Author Profiles, Northwest Passages, Web, April 5, 2011
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pierre H. Lemieux, " "Anne Hébert" Archived May 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine ," Canadian Encyclopedia (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988), 974.
- 1 2 3 4 " Anne Hébert Archived April 4, 2010, at the Wayback Machine ," French-Canadian Writers, AthabascaU.ca, Web, April 5, 2011.
- ↑ Litweb:Anne Hébert Archived March 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- 1 2 " Anne Hébert ," Anansi.ca, Web, April 26, 2011.
- ↑ "Molson Prize | The Canadian Encyclopedia" . www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca . Retrieved January 30, 2023 .
- ↑ <"École Anne Hébert," AnneHebert.csf.bc.ca, Web, Apr 26, 2011.
- ↑ "Anne, sa sœur Anne" . Gazette des Femmes , May 13, 2013.
- ↑ " 50th Anniversary of the National Library / Canadian Authors Archived September 23, 2009, at the Wayback Machine ," Canada Post, Web, March 28, 2011.
External links
- Anne Hébert's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia
- English translation of one of Hébert's poems: " Woman Bathing "
International | |
---|---|
National | |
Academics | |
People | |
Other |