He was born in Saint-Tite,a small town north of Trois-Rivières and has always considered himself as a child of the Mauricie,where his immigrant ancestors settled in the middle of the 19th century. They were among the first Europeans to settle as high as the Mékinac River in the upper Saint-Maurice River area. His family moved to Trois-Rivières in 1942 and his father signed him up in the Jardin de l'Enfance where he was taught by nuns from Brittany,in France,who were also related to the Vaugeois family. That choice would have a major influence on him,first because of the nuns concern for language and also because there was a children's library on the way to school. It was like a calling,books!
He took his "cours classique" at the séminaire Saint-Joseph de Trois-Rivières and opted to study arts and education. Then he went on to the École normale Jacques-Cartier and the Faculty of Arts of the Universitéde Montréal. Two professors particularly influenced him,Jan de Groot and Maurice Séguin. The former taught the importance of work,while the latter introduced him to history.
Denis Vaugeois in 2012
He began teaching history in several institutions while pursuing his education towards a degree in arts,a degree in education,and doctoral studies in history. In 1963 he participated to the creation of Boreal Express with Jacques Lacourcière and the librarian and student Pierre Gravel,at that time participating to the creation of the Comite international pour l'indépendance du Québec. He also started to get in touch with a famous engineer,closely linked with politicians Gordon Boisseau.
In 1965,he became the first head of studies in history of Quebec's newly created Education Ministry. Extremely disappointed by the orientation of education reform,which the people rejected by sending the Liberal Party back into the opposition in the 1966 elections,he turned towards international activities. After being co-director of the Centre franco-québécois de développement pédagogique (the France-Quebec education development centre),he became executive director of Quebec's international relations and,in that capacity,worked on developing the network of Quebec delegations and houses abroad.
In 1976,he was elected Member of the National Assembly for Trois-Rivières and became a member of René-Lévesque's Cabinet in 1978. Appointed Minister of Cultural Affairs,he devoted much effort to the defense of Quebec's heritage and the development of its network of libraries and museums. He also took on responsibility for the Ministry of Communications during the 1980 referendum and he denounced what he claimed was illegal spending done by the Liberal Party led by Pierre Trudeau. Following a disagreement with Premier Lévesque concerning development of the Quebec territory,he left the cabinet in 1981 and then left politics in 1985. He went back to publishing. Feeling some nostalgia for the years devoted to Les éditions du Boréal,which he had founded with others in 1962,he decided to found Les éditions du Septentrion.
As in the past,he combines management with research. The Atlantic world interests him,and more specifically,the history of the French in the Americas and their meeting with the first inhabitants and the constant and multi-formed exchange with immigrants from throughout the world. His work,both books and radio and television,bear witness to the progress of what he has qualified as the "Quebec melting pot".
Bibliography
Author of:
L'Union des deux Canadas (1791–1840),Éditions du Bien public,Montréal,1962.
Les Juifs et la Nouvelle-France,éditions du Boréal,1968.
L'Assemblée nationale en devenir. Pour un meilleur équilibre de nos institutions,Québec,1982.
Québec 1792. Les acteurs,les institutions et les frontières,Éditions Fides[fr],Montréal,1992.
La Fin des alliances franco-indiennes,éditions du Boréal,Montréal,1995.
Les Hurons de Lorette (Dir.),éditions du Septentrion,Québec,1996.
America. L’expédition de Lewis &Clark et la naissance d’une nouvelle puissance,éditions du Septentrion,Québec,2002.
The Last French and Indian War,McGill-Queen’s University Press,Montréal,2002.
America. The Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Dawn of a New Power,Véhicule Press,Montréal,2005.
L’Amour du livre. L’édition au Québec,ses petits secrets et ses mystères,éditions du Septentrion,Québec,2005.
Les Premiers Juifs d'Amérique,1760–1860. L'extraordinaire histoire de la famille Hart,éditions du Septentrion,Québec,2011.
The First Jews in North America. The Extraordinary Story of the Hart Family 1760–1860,Baraka Books,Montréal,2011.
In collaboration
Le Boréal Express 1534–1760,Boréal Express,1964. Collectif. Rééditéen 2009 aux éditions du Septentrion,Québec.
Le Boréal Express 1760–1810,Boréal Express,1964. Collectif. Rééditéen 2010 aux éditions du Septentrion,Québec.
Histoire 1534–1968,éditions du Renouveau pédagogique,1968. Rééditéen 1969 sous le titre Canada-Québec –Synthèse historique.
Les troubles de 1837–1838 (dossier d'histoire),Éditions Fides,1969,en collaboration avec Jacques Lacoursière.
L'Acte de Québec et l'Invasion américaine (dossier d'histoire),Éditions Fides,1970,en collaboration avec Jacques Lacoursière.
Le Boréal Express 1810–1841,Boréal Express,1972. Collectif. Rééditéen 2010 aux éditions du Septentrion,Québec.
L’Indien généreux. Ce que le monde doit aux Amériques,éditions du Boréal,1992,coauteur avec Louise Côtéet Louis Tardivel.
Canada-Québec,1534–2000,les éditions du Septentrion,Québec,2000,directeur et coauteur avec Jacques Lacoursière et Jean Provencher.
The Last French and Indian War,McGill-Queen's University Press,Montréal,2002,translated by Käthe Roth.
La generosidad del indigena. Dones de las Americas al mundo,Fondo,2003,en collaboration avec Socorro Arias (trad.).
Champlain. La naissance de l’Amérique française,les éditions du Septentrion,Québec,2004,codirecteur avec Raymonde Litalien.
Champlain. The Birth of French America,McGill-Queen's University Press,Montréal,2004,Edited with Raymonde Litalien.
John Lambert,Voyage au Canada dans les années 1806,1807 et 1808,les éditions du Septentrion,Québec,2006,traduit et annotéavec Roch Côté.
La Mesure d’un continent. Atlas historique de l’Amérique du Nord,1492–1814,les éditions du Septentrion,Québec,2007,coauteur avec Raymonde Litalien et Jean-François Palomino.
Mapping a continent. Historical Atlas of North America,1492–1814,McGill-Queen's University Press,Montréal,2007,in collaboration with Raymonde Litalien and Jean-François Palomino.
L’Impasse amérindienne. Trois commissions d’enquête àl’origine d’une politique de tutelle et d’assimilation,1828–1858,les éditions du Septentrion,Québec,2010,codirecteur avec Michel Lavoie.
Honours and distinctions
1996 –Finalist for the Governor General's Literary Prize for La Fin des alliances franco-indiennes.
1997 –Prix Samuel de Champlain awarded by the Institut France-Canada (France-Amériques).
2004 –Prix littéraire (mention) de l’Académie de marine (France) pour America. L’expédition de Lewis &Clark et la naissance d’une nouvelle puissance.
2005 –Finalist for the Governor General's Literary Prize pour America. The Lewis &Clark Expedition and the Dawn of a New Power,traduction de Jane Brierley.
2008 –Prix Gérard-Parizeau for his works on French-speaking America.
2008 –Prix Hercule Louis Catenacci awarded by the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (France),together with Raymonde Litalien and Jean-François Palomino,for La Mesure d’un continent.
2008 –Prix Marcel Couture awarded by the Salon du livre de Montréal,together with Raymonde Litalien and Jean-François Palomino,for La Mesure d’un continent.
2008 –Special mention by the jury for the Prix Lionel Groulx,together with Raymonde Litalien and Jean-François Palomino,for La Mesure d’un continent.
2008 –Honorary degree from the faculty of Arts and Sciences of the Universitéde Montréal.
2009 –Recognition by the Corporation des bibliothécaires professionnels du Québec on the occasion of the Corporation's 40th anniversary for his exceptional contribution to the development of libraries and information centres in Québec.
2009 –Prix René-Chaloult awarded by the Amicale des anciens parlementaires du Québec,from the Quebec National Assembly by its président AndréHarvey.
2011 –Honorary doctorate in Lettres from the UniversitéLaval.
2011 –Finalist for the Prix Marcel-Couture for Les premiers Juifs d’Amérique 1760-1860,Septentrion,2011.
2012 –Recipient of the Pix Lauréat Le Soleil/Radio-Canada,in the category «Société»,février 2012.
2012 –Winner of the Helen &Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award for History offered by the Koffler Foundation for Les premiers Juifs d’Amérique 1760-1860,Septentrion,2011.
2012 –Prix Percy-W.-Foy from the Sociétéhistorique de Montréal for Les premiers Juifs d’Amérique 1760-1860,Septentrion,2011.
2012 –Prix Fleury-Mesplet awarded by the Salon du livre de Montréal.
2012 –Prix Adagio awarded by the Salon du livre de Trois-Rivières.
Pierre Vallières was a Québécois journalist and writer, known as an intellectual leader of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). He was the author of the essay Nègres blancs d'Amérique, translated as White Niggers of America, which likened the struggles of French-Canadians to those of African-Americans.
Élise Turcotte is a Canadian writer. She completed her BA and MA in literary studies at the University of Quebec and later received her doctorate at the Université de Sherbrooke. She now teaches literature at a CEGEP in Montreal, where she currently resides. Her writing has won much praise, and among other things she has won the Grand Prix de Poésie, as well as the 2003 Governor General's Award for her novel La Maison étrangère and the Prix Émile-Nelligan for La voix de Carla in 1987 and for La terre est ici in 1989.
Marcel Trudel was a Canadian historian, university professor (1947–1982) and author who published more than 40 books on the history of New France. He brought academic rigour to an area that had been marked by nationalistic and religious biases. His work was part of the marked changes to Quebec society during the Quiet Revolution. Trudel's work has been honoured with major awards, including the Governor General's Literary Award for French Non-Fiction in 1966, and a second nomination for the award in 1987.
Ezekiel Hart was an entrepreneur and politician in British North America. He is often said to be the first Jew to be elected to public office in the British Empire.
Guy Bertrand is a Canadian linguist and broadcast personality.
Aaron Philip Hart was a businessman in Lower Canada and one of the first Jews to settle in the colony. He is considered the father of Canadian Jewry. He was one of the founding members of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal, a wealthy man with numerous landed estates, and the married father of four sons, including the future politician Ezekiel Hart, and four daughters.
Jacques Lacoursière, was a Canadian TV host, author and historian specialized in Quebec's history.
Magoua is a particular dialect of basilectal Quebec French spoken in the Trois-Rivières area, between Trois-Rivières and Maskinongé. Long before a military fort was constructed there, Trois-Rivières became in 1615 the first stronghold of the coureurs des bois outside the city of Québec. Magoua is the ethnonym applied to their descendants in the area. Magoua is the most conservative of all Quebec French varieties, including Joual. It preserves the sontaient ("étaient") characteristic of Métis French and Louisiana French, has a creole-like past tense particle tà and has old present-tense contraction of a former verb "to be" that behave in the same manner as subject clitics.
Marc Angenot is a Belgian-Canadian social theorist, historian of ideas and literary critic. He is a professor of French literature at McGill University, Montreal, and holder of the James McGill Chair of Social Discourse Theory there. He is a leading exponent of the sociocritical approach to literature.
Éric Gauthier is a Canadian writer from Quebec.
The following is an incomplete bibliography of the 1837-1838 insurrections in Lower Canada in the English and French languages, by publication date and document type.
The Quebec referendum on the prohibition of alcohol, held on April 10, 1919, considered the legalization of the sale of beer, cider and wine in the province of Quebec, Canada. The 'yes' side won with 78.62% of the votes.
Martin Veillette is a Canadian bishop, theologian, philosopher, sociologist and teacher. He was Bishop of Trois-Rivières. He was the eighth bishop of the diocese of Trois-Rivières from 1996 to 2012. He resigned in 2012, according to canon 401.
The Government of Trois-Rivières was one of three administrative divisions of the French colony of Canada from 1643 to 1764, the other two being the Government of Quebec and Government of Montreal. At the time of the New France, the colony was divided into five individual governments: one in Trois-Rivières, one in Quebec City, one in Montreal, one in Newfoundland and one in Acadia. Each of these regions was known as a government because it was headed by a governor. The Government of Trois-Rivières was the smallest of the three governments of the St. Lawrence Valley in both area and population.
Josué Dubois Berthelot de Beaucours was a military officer in New France, chief engineer of Canada and governor of Trois-Rivières and Montreal. He was also known as Jean-Maurice-Josué.
Pierre Anctil is a Canadian historian. He is specialist of the Jewish community of Montreal, of Yiddish literature and of the poetic work of Jacob-Isaac Segal. He also published on the history of immigration to Canada. He translated a dozen Yiddish books into French.
Jean-Paul Daoust is a Canadian poet. He won the Governor General's Award for French-language poetry at the 1990 Governor General's Awards for Les Cendres bleues.
Normand de Bellefeuille (French:[nɔʁmɑ̃dəbɛlfœj]; 31 December 1949 – 8 January 2024) was a Canadian poet, writer, literary critic, and essayist. He was a two-time winner of the Governor General's Award for French-language poetry, winning at the 2000 Governor General's Awards for La Marche de l'aveugle sans son chien and at the 2016 Governor General's Awards for Le poème est une maison de bord de mer.
Jean-Marc Desgent is a poet, novelist and literary critic. He was a professor at Collège Édouard-Montpetit from 1978 to 2011. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Hélène Pedneault was a Québécoise writer of many mediums who contributed much to the advancement of the feminist cause and also to Quebec sovereignty and the environment.
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