Jean Antoine René Édouard Corbière (1 April 1793 in

Brest Brest may refer to: Places *Brest, Belarus **Brest Region **Brest Airport **Brest Fortress *Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria *Břest, Czech Republic *Brest, France **Arrondissement of Brest **Brest Bretagne Airport ** Château de Brest *Brest, ...

– 27 September 1875 in

Morlaix Morlaix (; br, Montroulez) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Leisure and tourism The old quarter of the town has winding streets of cobbled stones and overhan ...

) was a French sailor, shipowner, journalist and writer, considered to be the father of the French maritime novel. He was the father of poet

Tristan Corbière Tristan Corbière (18 July 1845 – 1 March 1875), born Édouard-Joachim Corbière, was a French poet born in Coat-Congar, Ploujean (now part of Morlaix) in Brittany, where he lived most of his life before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 29 ...

Life

Early years

The Corbière family originated in Valès, a hamlet in the Haut-Languedoc (now part of the commune of Le Bez, to the east of

Castres Castres (; ''Castras'' in the Languedocian dialect, Languedocian dialect of Occitan language, Occitan) is the sole Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administ ...

, in the Tarn ''département''). At the time of Édouard's birth his father was an infantry captain in the French Navy - his mother, Jeanne-Renée Dubois, had been born at

in 1768. Édouard was the third of four children. On his father's death in 1802, the young Édouard had no choice but to enter the navy to provide a family income. He became a ''mousse'' in 1804, a ''novice'' in 1806, and an ''aspirant'' in 1807 before being captured by the British on 8 May 1811. He was a prisoner on parole at

Tiverton, Devon Tiverton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Devon, England, and the commercial and administrative centre of the Mid Devon district. The population in 2019 was 20,587. History Early history The town's name is conjectured to derive from "Twy-fo ...

, until November 1811 when he was sent to Stapleton Prison near Bristol. He was repatriated to France because of ill-health in July 1812.National Archives ADM 103/417. He was ejected from the navy on the

Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * ...

due to his liberal views and started writing pamphlets, leading him into several stand-offs with the law, firstly at

in 1819 due to his writings in ''La Guêpe'', then at

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

in 1823 in ''La Nacelle''. The latter forced him to become a sailor again, this time in the merchant navy. He sailed for ten years as a long-distance captain of the ''Nina'' (an old three-master captured from the British), mainly between

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

and

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

Literary debut

He gave up sea-service for good in 1828, landing in Le Havre, where he was immediately approached by Stanislas Faure, manager of the ''Journal du Havre'' newspaper, and asked to become its editor, a post he held until 1839 and for which he wrote until 1843. Under his leadership this daily newspaper rose from a tiny advertisements sheet into a first-rank organ for commercial and maritime information. In the meantime he wrote several novels, the best-known of which, ''Le Négrier'' (1832), gained him national fame in France. In 1839 the Finistère steam-packet company (Compagnie des paquebots à vapeur du Finistère) began operating between Le Havre and Morlaix - Corbière was one of its administrators, then its director, until his death.

Final years

In 1844, his marriage to Marie-Angélique-Aspasie Puyo, younger daughter of his friend, the merchant Joachim Puyo, négociant, led Corbière to settle for good at Morlaix. He launched a regatta in 1851, then unsuccessfully proposed starting a national subscription for France to send a yacht to the regatta around the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

at which, on 22 August 1851, the schooner ''America'' won the trophy later renamed the America Cup. Corbière was also a member of the municipal council of Morlaix in 1855 and 1860. Entering the Chamber of Commerce in 1848, he was its vice-president from 1866 to 1868, then its president from 1868 to March 1875. A few months before his death, Corbière was profoundly affected by the death of his eldest son Édouard-Joachim (better known as

). Corbière's death was an occasion for public mourning in both Morlaix and Le Havre. The steam-packet company's ship ''Morlaix'' and the other ships sailing out of the ports of Finistère, all flew their flags at half mast, while the ''Morlaix'' herself carried Corbière's coffin, which was then taken ashore by sailors. In 1880, a short road in central Le Havre was renamed after Corbière and later Brest,

(1905) and

Roscoff Roscoff (; br, Rosko) is a commune in the Finistère département of Brittany in northwestern France. Roscoff is renowned for its picturesque architecture, labelled (small town of character) since 2009. Roscoff is also a traditional departure ...

(1911) did the same. In 1906, the steam-packet company decided to name its fifth and last ship ''Édouard Corbière''. The shipping company founded by Corbière in 1839 disappeared in 1921, after the French state failed to fully reimburse it for the loss of its last ship, torpedoed in the Mediterranean in 1917.

Works

*''À la Liberté publique'',

dithyramb The dithyramb (; grc, διθύραμβος, ''dithyrambos'') was an ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility; the term was also used as an epithet of the god. Plato, in ''The Laws'', while discussing ...

, 1819 Online text
/small> *''Le Dix-Neuvième Siècle'', political satire, 1819 Online text
/small> *''La Marotte des Ultra, ou Recueil des chansons patriotiques'', 1819 Online text
/small> *''Trois Jours d'une mission à Brest'', 1819 *''La Lanterne magique, pièce curieuse représentant la Chambre des Députés de 1819'', 1819 Online text
/small> *''Les Philippiques françaises'', poem, 1820 *''Notre Âge'', satire, 1821 *''Élégies brésiliennes, suivies de Poésies diverses, et d'une Notice sur la traite des noirs'', 1823 Online text
/small> *''Brésiliennes'', 1825 Online text
/small> *''Corbière à Corbière. Épître à Son Excellence le comte de Corbière'', 1827 *''Poésies de Tibulle'', French verse translation of the poems of

Tibullus Albius Tibullus ( BC19 BC) was a Latin poet and writer of elegies. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to him are of questionable origins. Little is known about the life of Tibullus. There are only a fe ...

, 1829 *''Les Pilotes de l'Iroise'', maritime novel, 1832 *''Contes de bord'', 1833 Online text
/small> *''La Mer et les marins'', maritime scenes, 1833 Online text
/small> *''Le Prisonnier de guerre'', maritime novel, 1834 *''Le Négrier'', aventures de mer, 4 vol., 1834 Online text 1234
/small> *''Scènes de mer'', 2 vol., 1835 Online text 12
/small> *''Le Banian'', maritime novel, 2 vol., 1836 *''Les Folles-brises'', 2 vol., 1838 Online text 12
/small> *''Les Trois Pirates'', 2 vol., 1838 *''Tribord et bâbord'', maritime novel, 2 vol., 1840 Online text 12
/small> *''Pelaio'', roman maritime, 2 vol., 1843 Online text 12
/small> *''Les Îlots de Martin Vaz'', maritime novel, 2 vol., 1843 Online text 12
/small> *''Cric-Crac'', maritime novel, 2 vol., 1846 Online text 12
/small> *''Pétition maritime à l'Assemblée nationale'', 1848 *''Questions soumises à l'enquête sur la marine marchande'', 1851

References

External links

Site
- town of Morlaix * * * Jean Berthou: "Edouard Corbière, père du roman maritime en France, catalogue de l'exposition présentée à Brest et à Morlaix en 1990, 65 p., Gallimard, 1990. * Jean Berthou: "Edouard Corbière, père naturel et spirituel de Tristan", in "Tristan Corbière en 1995", Comité Tristan Corbière/Bibliothèque de Morlaix, p. 43-53,1996. * Pascal Rannou: "Le thème du naufrageur chez Edouard et Tristan Corbière: les aléas d'un topos maritime", in "Bretagne et mer en écriture", revue Plurial n°17, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, p. 217-230, 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:Corbiere, Edouard 1793 births 1875 deaths French Navy officers from Brest, France French journalists French sailors 19th-century French novelists Maritime writers Nautical historical novelists 19th-century sailors French male novelists 19th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers