| Louis-Honoré Fréchette | |
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Louis-Honoré Fréchette, 1900. Credit: Royal Society Portraits / Library and Archives Canada / C-002037. |
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| Born | November 16, 1839 Lévis, Lower Canada |
| Died | May 30, 1908 (aged 68) |
| Occupation | poet, playwright, short story writer |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Notable award(s) | Prix Montyon, CMG |
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Louis-Honoré Fréchette, CMG (November 16, 1839 – May 31, 1908), was a Canadian poet, politician, playwright, and short story writer.
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Born in Lévis, Lower Canada, from 1854 to 1860 Fréchette did his classical studies at the Séminaire de Québec, the Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière and at the Séminaire de Nicolet. He later studied law at Université Laval.
In 1864, he opened a lawyer's office in Lévis where he founded two newspapers: Le drapeau de Lévis and La Tribune de Levis. He exiled himself in Chicago where he wrote La voix d'un exilé. A number of plays which he wrote during that period were lost in the Great Chicago Fire.
Soon after he returned home in 1874, he was elected Member of Parliament in Ottawa. He served in the Canadian House of Commons from 1874 to 1878 as the Liberal Party of Canada member from Lévis.He was not re-elected in 1878. After that, he moved to Montreal where he began writing full time, having inherited the wealth of his aunt when she died.
He was the first Quebecer to receive the Montyon Prize of the Académie française for his collection of poems Les Fleurs boréales, les oiseaux de neige (1879).
In 1897 he was created a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George.
Canada Post issued a postage stamp in his honour on July 7, 1989.
In 1991, Louis Honoré Fréchette Public School, opened in Thornhill, Ontario.
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| Preceded by William Robinson Clark |
President of the Royal Society of Canada 1900-1901 |
Succeeded by James Loudon |