Claude-Henri Grignon

Claude-Henri Grignon, OC, FRSC (July 8, 1894 – April 3, 1976)Claude-Henri Grignon
at The Canadian Encyclopedia. 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. He was a cousin of writer Germaine Guèvremont.French Canadian Writers: Germaine Guèvremont
at Athabasca University 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, ''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 of the government of Maurice Duplessis, Grignon advanced the theory that publisher and literary critic Louis Dantin was the real author of the poetry of Émile Nelligan;Gaëtan Dostie
"Nelligan et de Bussières créés par Dantin ?"
''Le Patriote''. Republished by the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society 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''. 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''.

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.

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
Canadian television writers
Journalists from Quebec
Writers from Quebec
Mayors of places in Quebec
People from Laurentides
Canadian satirists
20th-century Canadian novelists
Canadian novelists in French
Canadian male screenwriters
20th-century Canadian male writers
20th-century Canadian screenwriters
Canadian male television writers
Officers of the Order of Canada
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada