“Trésors d’archives”

Emma-Adèle Bourgeois Lacerte – or Mme A.B. Lacerte as she signed her books – was a Francophone author from Ottawa, and the star writer of Éditions Édouard Garand, one of the first mass publishers in Québec. In addition to enjoying significant commercial success, Éditions Édouard Garand published many female writers, as well as several Francophone authors from across Canada.  

In this episode, we explore French-Canadian popular literature of the 1920s – a far cry from Québec rural literature! – with the help of Roxane, an adventure and romance novel by Mme A.B. Lacerte, preserved in the Library’ remarkable Pamphlet Collection.

Guests: Marie Noël, Archivist, University of Ottawa Library, and Lucie Hotte, Distinguished Researcher, Centre de recherche sur les francophonies canadiennes (CRCCF) and Professor Emerita, Département de français, University of Ottawa.

(Coming soon)

The 1940s marked a turning point in Québec’s artistic and literary landscapes, with the publication, among other things, of Les îles de la nuit by Alain Grandbois, one of the first collections of free verse poetry in Québec (1944), the publication of the manifestos Prisme d'yeux and Refus global (1948), and the founding of Éditions Erta by Roland Giguère (1949).

In this episode, we explore this tumultuous period of cultural modernization, focusing namely on the first edition of Les îles de la nuit, illustrated by Alfred Pellan, as well as on Faire naître, the collection of poetry that enabled Roland Giguère to launch Éditions Erta, a new surrealist and experimental publishing house dedicated to handcrafted books. We also discover the surprising collection of Québec Artists' Books, which reflect the creativity and growing interest in engraving and printmaking among avant-garde Québec artists, from the post-war period to the 1970s.