Germaine Guèvremont, born Grignon[1] (April 16, 1893 – August 21, 1968) was a Canadian writer, who was a prominent figure in
Quebec literature.[1]
Born in 1893 in
Saint-Jérôme,
Quebec, she was educated in Quebec and
Toronto, and worked as a journalist for women's magazines before marrying
Hyacinthe "Hy" Guèvremont and moving with him to
Sorel in 1916.[1] She was a
housewife for a number of years, but later returned to journalism as a writer for The Gazette and an editor for Le Courrier de Sorel. The Guèvremonts later moved to
Montreal, where Germaine worked as a court
stenographer during the
Great Depression. She also began to publish
short stories, which were compiled into her debut book, En pleine terre, in 1938.[2]
She published the novel Le Survenant in 1945, followed by the sequel Marie-Didace in 1947. The Outlander, an English translation of her two novels in one volume, was published in 1950, and won the fiction prize in the
1950 Governor General's Awards.[1] The book was also published in the United Kingdom under the title Monk's Reach.[2] She did not publish any further novels, but continued to publish journalism and short stories as well as writing radio and television adaptations of her fiction works. She began to write her
memoirs late in life, but completed only two chapters before her death in 1968.[2]
She was the cousin of
Claude-Henri Grignon, the author of Un Homme et son péché.[1] Ironically, Guèvremont's novels are largely recognized as the last influential examples of romans du terroir, the traditionalist form of Quebec literature in the early 20th century,[2] while Grignon's Un Homme broke with that tradition and is recognized as one of Quebec's first influential modernist novels.[3]
Works
En pleine terre (1942/1946)
Le Survenant (1945)
Marie-Didace (1947)
The Outlander (1950; English translation of both Le Survenant and Marie-Didace in one volume)