Thériault, Yves 1915–1983

PERSONAL: Born November 28, 1915, in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada; died October 20, 1983; son of Alcide and Aurore (Nadeau) Thériault; married Michelle-Germaine Blanchet (a writer), April 21, 1942; children: Yves-Michel, Marie-Jose. Religion: Roman Catholic.

CAREER: Worked as a trapper, cheese salesman, truck diver, bartender, and tractor salesman in the early 1930s; radio announcer, 1935–39; director of a newspaper in Toronto, Ontario; worked as a publicity manager; National Film Board of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, script writer and public relations staff member, 1943–45; script writer for Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC-Radio), 1945–50; Department of Indian Affairs, Ottawa, cultural director, 1965–67.

AWARDS, HONORS: First prize for best French-language radio play, 1952; Quebec Government prize, 1954, for Aaron, and first prize, 1958, for Agaguk; Canada Council senior arts fellowship and French Academy language prize for fiction, both 1961; Governor General's Literary Award, Canada Council, 1961, for Ashini; Prix France-Canada, 1961, for Agaguk and Ashini; Molson Prize, Canada Council, 1971; Prix Mgr Camille Roy for Le Vendeur d'etoiles et autre contes.

WRITINGS:

IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Agaguk (novel), Grasset, 1958, translation by Miriam Chapin published under same title, Ryerson (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1971.

Ashini (novel), Fides (Montreal, Ontario, Canada), 1960, translation by Gwendolyn Moore published under same title, Harvest House (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1972.

N'Tsik (novel), Editions de 1'Homme, 1968, translation by Gwendolyn Moore published under same title, Harvest House (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1972.

Oeuvre de Chair, Stanke (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1975, translation by Jean David published as Ways of the Flesh, Gage Publishing (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1977.

Agoak: l'Heritage d'Agaguk, Quinz (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1975, translation by John David Allen published as Agoak: The Legacy of Agaguk, McGraw-Hill Ryerson (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1979.

OTHER

Contes pour un homme seul (stories), Editions de l'Arbre (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1944.

La fille laide (novel), Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1950.

Le marcheur: piece en trois actes (three-act play; produced in Montreal, 1950), Lemeac (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1968.

Le dompteur d'ours (novel), 1951, reprinted, Editions de l'Homme (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1965.

Les vendeurs du temple (novel), 1951, reprinted, Editions de l'Homme (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1964.

Le vengeance de la mer (novel), 1951.

Trois rivieres: ville de reflect, Editions de Bien Public, 1954.

Aaron (novel), Institut Litteraire du Quebec (Quebec, Canada), 1954.

Amour au gout de mer (novel), Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1961.

Cul-de-sac (novel), Institut Litteraire du Quebec (Quebec, Canada), 1961.

Le vendeur d'etoiles et autres contes (stories), Fides (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1961.

Les commettants de caridad (novel), Institut Litteraire du Quebec (Quebec, Canada), 1961.

Sejour a Moscou (travel), Fides (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1961.

Si la bombe m'etait contee (novel), Editions du Jour (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1962.

Le grand Roman d'un petit homme (novel), Editions du Jour (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1963.

Le Ru d'Ikoue (prose poem), Fides (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1963, revised edition, 1977.

La rose de Pierre: histoires d'amour (stories), Editions du Jour (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1964.

Les temps du Carcajou (novel), Institut Litteraire du Quebec (Quebec, Canada), 1965.

Berangere ou la chair en feu (play), produced in Lorette, Quebec, Canada, 1965.

Le dernier rayon (novel), Lidec (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1966.

L'appelante (novel), Editions du Jour (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1967.

(With others) Centennial Play, produced in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, 1967.

Contes erotiques (stories), Ferron (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1968.

Kesten (novel), Editions du Jour (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1968.

La Mort d'eau (novel), Editions de l'Homme (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1968.

L'ile introuvable: nouvelles, Editions du Jour (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1968.

Mahigan, Lemeac (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1968.

Antoine et sa Montagne (novel), Editions du Jour (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1969.

L'Or de la felouque (novel), Jeunesse (Quebec, Canada), 1969.

Tayaout, fils d'Agaguk, Editions de l'Homme (Mont real, Quebec, Canada), 1969.

Textes et documents, Lemeac (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1969.

Valerie, Editions de l'Homme (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1969.

Fredange: piece en deux actes (two-act play; includes Les terres neuves), Lemeac (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1970.

Le dernier havre, L'Actuelle (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1970.

La Passe-au-Crachin (novel), Ferron (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1972.

Le haut pays (novel), Ferron (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1973.

Moi, Pierre Huneau (novel), Hurtubise (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1976.

La quete de l'ourse, Stanke (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1980.

Le partage de minuit, Quebecor (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1980.

La femme Anna: et autres contes (stories), VLB Editeur (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1981.

L'entreinte de Venus: contest Policiers, Quebecor (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1981.

Valere et le grand canot, VLB Editeur (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1981.

L'herb de tendresse, VLB Editeur (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1982.

(With Andre Carpentier) Yves Thériault se raconte, VLB Editeur (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1985.

Le choix de Marie Jose Thériault dans l'oeuvre, Presses Laurentiennes (Charlesbourg, Quebec, Canada), 1986.

Author of short stories and of detective novels, often with wife, Michelle-Germaine Blanchet.

FOR CHILDREN

Alerte au camp 29, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1959.

La revanche du nascopie, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1959.

La loi de l'Apache, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1960.

L'homme de la papinachois, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1960.

Le roi de la cote nord: la vie extraordinaire de Napoleon-Alexandre Comeau, Editions de l'Homme (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1960.

La Montagne sacre, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1962.

Le rapt du lac cache, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1962.

Nakika, le petit Algonquin, Lemeac (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1962.

Avea, le petit Tramway, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1963.

Les aventures de Ti-Jean, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1963.

Les extravagances de Ti-Jean, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1963.

Maurice le moruceau, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1963.

Nauya, le petit esquimau, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1963, reprinted Quebecor (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1980.

Ti-Jean et le grand geant, Beauchemin (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1963.

Zibon et coucou, Lemeac (Montreal, Ontario, Canada), 1964.

La Montagne creuse, Lidec (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1965.

Le secret de muffarti, Lidec (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1965.

Le Chateau des petits hommes verts, Lidec (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1966.

Les dauphins de Monsieur Yu, Lidec (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1966.

La bete a 300 tetes, Lidec (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1967.

Les pieuvres, Lidec (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1967.

Les vampires de la rue monsieur-le-prince, Lidec (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1968.

Cajetan et la taupe, Editions Paulines (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1979.

Les adventures d'Ori d'Or, Editions Paulines (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1979.

Kuanuten, Editions Paulines (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1981.

Contributor to periodicals, including Culture, Maclean's, Saturday Night, Nouveau Journal, Le Jour, and Revue de l'Universite Laval. Some of Thériault's correspondence is held at the Public Archives of Canada.

SIDELIGHTS: Yves Thériault is considered to be one of the leading French-Canadian writers of the twentieth century. The book that sealed his reputation was his novel Agaguk, published in 1958. The story that gained him international recognition is one of struggle, as an Inuit man is torn between his native traditions and contemporary society.

Thériault grew up in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and learned about the non-Western part of his heritage from his father, who was half Montagnais Indian. Thériault left school before completing the eighth grade and worked at odd jobs. He recovered from tuberculosis and worked as a trapper for a short time before beginning his writing career, first for radio, then for television. His short stories found publication and he wrote detective and romance novels for four years, often with his wife, before his acclaimed novel, La fille laide, was published.

Thériault explores a number of themes in his writings. Primitivism, exoticism, violence, and eroticism frequent his works, as do characters struggling against basic human passions and instincts or searching for self-identity. The environment itself often becomes a character. Several of his books, including Les vendeurs du temple and Le dompteur d'ours, are social satires. Thériault frequently involves oppressed groups in his works and examines the plights of immigrants, as well as those of indigenous peoples. Aaron, for example, is set in a Jewish community. It is considered by many, along with Agaguk, to be Thériault's greatest achievement.

Thériault was a prolific writer, and with the publication of Ashini, a novel that revolves around the Montagnais culture, he became recognized as a spokesman for native concerns. He served as director of Cultural Affairs in the Ministry of Indian Affairs during the 1960s. About Ashini, Gilbert Farthing wrote in Canadian Literature that Thériault "shows the shortcomings of the civilized, even those fundamentally sympathetic to the Indians; and damns with faint praise that paternalism which condemns great hunters to the spiritless dragging out of a pensionary existence."

In The Long Journey: Literary Themes of French Canada, Jack Warwick wrote that "Thériault's Agaguk and Ashini together form the most interesting new development historically. They are respectively an Eskimo and a Montagnais Indian whose characters are drawn from the author's observations in Ungava. Like the early missionaries, Thériault has made his observations in the light of an existing tradition. The result is in some ways a renewal of the whole noble savage process."

Thériault is the author of several collections of stories, plays, and, toward the end of his career, books for children. He suffered a stroke in 1970, which resulted in partial paralysis, but he continued to write until his death at the age of sixty-seven.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 88: Canadian Writers, 1920–1959: Second Series, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1989.

Warwick, Jack, The Long Journey: Literary Themes of French Canada, University of Toronto Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1968, pp. 101-128, 129-159.

PERIODICALS

Canadian Literature, autumn, 1961, Gilbert Farthing, review of Ashini, pp. 84-85.