Henriette Dessaulles (February 6, 1860 – November 17, 1946), also known by the pen name Fadette, was a Canadian journalist and diarist from Quebec."De remarquables oubliés: Henriette Dessaulles"
Première Chaîne, November 13, 2007. An important pioneer of women's writing in Quebec, she is best known for her longtime column in '' Le Devoir'' and for her childhood diaries which were posthumously published in 1971. She was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec to

Georges-Casimir Dessaulles Georges-Casimir Dessaulles (September 29, 1827 – April 19, 1930), was a Canadian businessman, statesman and senator. Dessaulles was one of the oldest serving politicians ever, only surpassed by Giovanni Battista Borea d'Olmo. Appointed to th ...

,"A sassy personality comes alive". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', December 27, 1986. at the time the town's mayor and later a member of the

Legislative Assembly of Quebec The Legislative Assembly of Quebec (French: ''Assemblée législative du Québec'') was the name of the lower house of Quebec's legislature from 1867 to December 31, 1968, when it was renamed the National Assembly of Quebec. At the same time, t ...

and the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the B ...

, and Émilie Mondelet. Jean Dessaulles was her paternal grandfather,

Dominique Mondelet Dominique Mondelet (January 23, 1799 – February 19, 1863) was a lawyer, judge, seigneurial system of New France, seigneur and political figure in Lower Canada. He was born in Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu, the ...

was her maternal grandfather, and Louis-Joseph Papineau was her godfather. Beginning at age 14, Dessaules began writing a diary in 1874 while being educated at convent school. She continued until 1881, when she married Maurice St-Jacques. She had seven children with St-Jacques before his death in 1897. At the time of St-Jacques' death, he was a

Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; french: Parti libéral du Québec, PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has always been associated with the colour red; e ...

candidate for the electoral district of Saint-Hyacinthe in the 1897 provincial election; Dessaulles' father was nominated in his place, and won the seat.

Journalism

After St-Jacques' death, Dessaulles began writing a column for '' La Patrie'' under the pseudonym Jean Deshayes. She also wrote for ''Le Journal de Françoise'', ''Le Courrier de Montmagny'', ''La Revue de la femme'', ''La Revue moderne'', ''Le Canada'' and ''Le Nationaliste'' before joining ''Le Devoir'' in 1910. For ''Le Devoir'', she wrote a long-running column under the pen name Fadette. Compilations of her Fadette columns were published as ''Lettres de Fadette'' in 1914, 1915, 1916 and 1918, and she published several works of children's literature, including ''Les Contes de la lune'' (1932), and ''Il etait une fois'' (1933)."DEAR DIARY; Henriette Dessaulles was a proper young girl of good family living in the cream of Quebec 19th-century society. Her secret thoughts make an excellent guide both to social history and a young girl's heart". '' Montreal Gazette'', January 3, 1987. She continued writing the column in ''Le Devoir'' until the 1940s, and died November 17, 1946.

Diaries

Her childhood diaries were published in 1971 as ''Fadette: Journal d'Henriette Dessaulles 1874-1881''. They attracted widespread attention, as both a portrait of the thoughts of a young girl and as a

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

. An English translation of the diaries by

Liedewy Hawke Liedewij Hawke, usually credited as Liedewy Hawke in English, is a Dutch/Canadian literary translator. Biography Originally from De Bilt, Netherlands, she was educated at the University of Utrecht and moved to Canada in 1963 to study at the Un ...

was published in 1986 as ''Hopes and Dreams, The Diary of Henriette Dessaulles 1874-1881''. Hawke won both the John Glassco Translation Prize and the Canada Council Translation Prize"Council hands out translation prizes". ''

'', June 2, 1987. for her work.

References

External links

* Henriette Dessaulles' ''Journal'' on ''Bibliothèque mobile de littérature québécoise'' (HTML) {{DEFAULTSORT:Dessaulles, Henriette 19th-century Canadian non-fiction writers 19th-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers 20th-century Canadian women writers Canadian children's writers in French Canadian diarists Canadian columnists Canadian women journalists Canadian newspaper journalists People from Saint-Hyacinthe Writers from Quebec Canadian non-fiction writers in French 1860 births 1946 deaths Pseudonymous women writers Canadian women non-fiction writers Women diarists Canadian women columnists 19th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Canadian women children's writers