Post-Confederation Ottawa sets the scene for this fascinating biography of a literary couple. The marriage of Annie Howells and Achille Fréchette in 1877 brought together two literary families and two cultural traditions. Annie was the daughter of the US consul in Quebec, William Cooper Howells, and sister of the American novelist William Dean Howells. Achille, a translator for the Canadian House of Commons, was the brother of the French-Canadian poet Louis Fréchette. Both Annie and Achille were authors themselves, and their lives and careers touched frequently Ottawa”s political, cultural, and religious life.
In Ottawa the Fréchettes established themselves at the centre of a distinguished bilingual circle of politicians, poets, and scholars. Their friends included Wilfrid Laurier, Alphonse Lusignan, and, in later years, Archibald Lampman. Both Fréchettes continued to pursue the literary careers they had begun before their marriage. Annie published a serialized novel and many short stories and articles; Achille”s poems continued to appear in various periodicals. Achille also took part as writer and trustee in a bitter debate over separate schools.
The many surviving letters between Annie and her brother William cover various topics of mutual interest to Canadians and Americans, reflecting both Canadian and American cultural experience in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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