Claude-Henri Grignon
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Claude-Henri Grignon, OC, FRSC (July 8, 1894 – April 3, 1976)Claude-Henri Grignon
at
The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...
.
was a French-Canadian novelist, journalist and politician, best known for his 1933 novel ''Un Homme et son péché''.


Early life

Grignon was born in Sainte-Adèle,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
. He was a cousin of writer
Germaine Guèvremont Germaine Guèvremont, born GrignonFrench Canadian Write ...
.French Canadian Writers: Germaine Guèvremont
at
Athabasca University Athabasca University (AU) is a Canadian public university that primarily operates through online distance education. Founded in 1970, it is one of four comprehensive academic and research universities in Alberta, and was the first Canadian ...
Centre for Language and Literature.


Career

Grignon began working as a journalist in 1916, writing for a number of publications in Quebec, including ''La Minerve'', ''Le Matin'', ''Le Canada'', ''Le Petit Journal'', ''La Revue populaire'', ''La Renaissance'' and ''Bataille''. He published his
debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...
, ''Le Secret de Lindbergh'', in 1929. His second novel, ''Un Homme et son péché'', was published in 1933. A tale of a man whose greed leads to the death of his wife, the book broke with Quebec's literary conventions of the time by satirizing rather than glorifying life in rural Quebec, and came to be recognized as one of Quebec's early modernist novels. By contrast, Guèvremont's novels in the same period continued to follow Quebec's more traditionalist '' romans du terroir'' style. Grignon released the short story collection ''Le Déserteur et autres récits de la terre'' in 1934. As well, he wrote literary and political criticism, including ''Les Vivants et les autres'' and ''Ombres et Clameurs''. In his work ''Les Pamphlets de Valdombre'', a trenchant
satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...
of the government of
Maurice Duplessis Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis, (; April 20, 1890 – September 7, 1959) byname "Le Chef" (, "The Boss"), was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 16th premier of Quebec. A Conservatism in Canada, conservative, Quebec nationalism, ...
, Grignon advanced the theory that publisher and literary critic Louis Dantin was the real author of the poetry of
Émile Nelligan Émile Nelligan (December 24, 1879 – November 18, 1941) was a Canadian Symbolist poet from Montreal who wrote in French. Even though he stopped writing poetry after being institutionalized at the age of 19, Nelligan remains an iconic figur ...
;Gaëtan Dostie
"Nelligan et de Bussières créés par Dantin ?"
''Le Patriote''. Republished by the
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society (, ) is an institution in the Canadian province of Quebec dedicated to the protection of Quebec francophone interests and to the promotion of Quebec sovereignism. It is known as the oldest patriotic association in ...
of Montreal, July 22, 2015.
although the claim was widely derided and denied by Dantin himself, it was later readvanced by literary historian Yvette Francoli in her 2013 book ''Le naufragé du Vaisseau d'or''. He subsequently wrote a serial radio dramatization of ''Un Homme et son péché'', as well as the television adaptation ''
Les Belles Histoires des pays d'en haut ''Les Belles Histoires des pays d'en haut'' (''The Beautiful Stories of the Upper Countries'') is a Canadian television drama series, which aired on Radio-Canada from October 8, 1956, to June 1, 1970. One of the longest-running programs in the his ...
''. The novel has also been adapted as a film three times, including 1949's '' A Man and His Sin'', the 1950 sequel '' Séraphin'', and 2002's '' Séraphin: Heart of Stone (Séraphin: un homme et son péché)'',"Claude-Henri Grignon avait-il tout faux?"
''Le Journal de Montreal'', Guy Fournier, 22 December 2015
as well as the 2016-21 television series ''
Les Pays d'en haut ''Les Pays d'en haut'' (''The Upper Countries'') is a Canadian television drama series, which aired on Ici Radio-Canada Télé from 2016 to 2021. The second television adaptation of Claude-Henri Grignon's 1933 novel ''Un Homme et son péché'' fol ...
''. Grignon later served as mayor of Sainte-Adèle from 1941 to 1951. For a time he was the literary editor of the ''Clarion-Montréal'' newspaper. Grignon's papers have been collected and preserved at the
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec The (; ; abbr. BAnQ) is a Quebec government agency which manages the province's legal deposit system, national archives, and national library. Located at the Grande Bibliothèque in Montreal, the BAnQ was created by the merging of the Biblioth ...
.


Works

* 1922 - ''Les Vivants et les autres'' * 1929 - ''Le Secret de Lindbergh'' * 1933 - ''Ombres et Clameurs'' * 1933 - ''Un homme et son péché'' * 1934 - ''Le Déserteur et autres récits de la terre'' * 1935 - ''Précisions sur « Un homme et son péché »'' * 1936 - ''Les Pamphlets de Valdombre''


See also

* Village de Séraphin


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grignon, Claude-Henri 1894 births 1976 deaths Canadian male novelists Canadian newspaper journalists Canadian male journalists Canadian radio writers Journalists from Quebec Screenwriters from Quebec 20th-century mayors of places in Quebec People from Laurentides Canadian satirists Canadian satirical novelists 20th-century Canadian novelists Canadian novelists in French Canadian male screenwriters 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian screenwriters Canadian male television writers Canadian television writers Officers of the Order of Canada Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Novelists from Quebec