Edmond Laforest (20 June 1876 – 17 October 1915) was a

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

an poet.

Life and works

Born in

Jérémie Jérémie ( ht, Jeremi) is a commune and capital city of the Grand'Anse department in Haiti. It had a population of about 31,000 at the 2003 census. It is relatively isolated from the rest of the country. The Grande-Anse River flows near the ...

, Laforest was a teacher of

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. Some of his most noted works are ''Poèmes Mélancoliques'' (1901), ''Sonnets-Médaillons'' (1909), and ''Cendres et Flammes''. He killed himself by tying a Larousse dictionary around his neck and jumping off a bridge, to expose how the French language, imposed upon him by colonists, had killed him artistically.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Ame ...

, "Editor's Introduction: Writing 'Race' and the Difference It Makes", ''Race, Writing and Difference'', University of Chicago Press, 1987, p. 13.

References

* 1876 births 1915 deaths 20th-century Haitian poets 20th-century male writers 1915 suicides Haitian educators Haitian male poets Suicides by drowning Suicides in Haiti {{Haiti-writer-stub