The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Fréchette, Louis Honoré
(lw ônôr´ frsht´) (KEY) , 18391908, French Canadian poet and politician, b. Lévis, Que. He worked (186571) as a journalist in Chicago and while there wrote a volume of poetry entitled La Voix dun exilé [the voice of an exile] (186668). Returning to Canada, he served in Parliament (187478), tried journalism again, and in 1889 received a government clerkship, which he held until his death. His volumes of poetry include Les Oiseaux de neige [snowbirds] (1879), on old Quebec, and La Légende dun peuple [the story of a people] (1887), an epic of the French Canadians. He was the first Canadian poet to be honored by the French Academy. His collected poems appeared posthumously in 1908.