Germaine Guèvremont

Germaine Guèvremont, born Grignon[1] (April 16, 1893 – August 21, 1968) was a Canadian writer, who was a prominent figure in Quebec literature.[1]

Germaine Guèvremont
Born	Germaine Grignon April 16, 1893 Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, Canada
Died	August 21, 1968
Occupation	Novelist Short story writer Journalist
Nationality	Canadian
Period	1930s-1960s
Notable works	En plein terre Le Survenant Marie-Didace
Spouse	Hyacinthe "Hy" Guèvremont

Born in 1893 in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, she was educated in Quebec and Toronto, and worked as a journalist for women's magazines before marrying Hyacinthe "Hy" Guèvremont and moving with him to Sorel in 1916.[1] She was a housewife for a number of years, but later returned to journalism as a writer for The Gazette and an editor for Le Courrier de Sorel. The Guèvremonts later moved to Montreal, where Germaine worked as a court stenographer during the Great Depression. She also began to publish short stories, which were compiled into her debut book, En pleine terre, in 1938.[2]

She published the novel Le Survenant in 1945, followed by the sequel Marie-Didace in 1947. The Outlander, an English translation of her two novels in one volume, was published in 1950, and won the fiction prize in the 1950 Governor General's Awards.[1] The book was also published in the United Kingdom under the title Monk's Reach.[2] She did not publish any further novels, but continued to publish journalism and short stories as well as writing radio and television adaptations of her fiction works. She began to write her memoirs late in life, but completed only two chapters before her death in 1968.[2]

She was the cousin of Claude-Henri Grignon, the author of Un Homme et son péché.[1] Ironically, Guèvremont's novels are largely recognized as the last influential examples of romans du terroir, the traditionalist form of Quebec literature in the early 20th century,[2] while Grignon's Un Homme broke with that tradition and is recognized as one of Quebec's first influential modernist novels.[3]

Works

• En pleine terre (1942/1946)
• Le Survenant (1945)
• Marie-Didace (1947)
• The Outlander (1950; English translation of both Le Survenant and Marie-Didace in one volume)

Awards and honours

In addition to her Governor General's Award win, Le Survenant won the Prix David from the government of Quebec and the Prix Sully-Olivier de Serres from the Académie française. She was a member of the Académie des lettres du Québec, and was honored on a postage stamp by Canada Post in 1976.

Le Survenant was chosen for the 2010 edition of Première Chaîne's Le Combat des livres.

References

1. French Canadian Writers: Germaine Guèvremont Archived 2010-04-04 at the Wayback Machine at Athabasca University Centre for Language and Literature.
2. William H. New, The Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada. ISBN 0-8020-0761-9.
3. Claude-Henri Grignon at The Canadian Encyclopedia.