Browse Items (339 total)
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A Franco-American in Montréal
Martin talks about her life as a Franco-American--French Canadian from the province of Quebec, but born and raised in the US. She grew up hearing about her mother's time "in Canada." The nuns, her curfew, eating lunch with young women with names like her own--Ghislaine, Luce, Fleurette--and running through an underground tunnel to get to practicum twenty minutes later. The boxes of carres aux dattes she would buy at a bakery near school and store on her windowsill. Studying on the roof of the Hotel-Dieu, taking her boards at the Universite de Montreal. The beautiful French of those in Montreal. -
We Were Not Spoiled: A Franco-American Memoir
We Were Not Spoiled chronicles the early life of a Franco-Mainer born in 1921 in Lewiston and raised there. Lucille Verreault Ledoux's life is typical of many Franco-American women of her generation, children of immigrants to the US from French Canada, and, as such, the book is an important addition to our understanding of Maine’s ethnically diverse communities in the last century. We Were Not Spoiled offers insight into Franco-American social life and identity of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. In this story of the effects of immigration to the US from French Canada, we glimpse into the lives of French-speaking women and girls in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. French Canadian culture continued to be alive in the New England girls who people this eminently readable memoir. We Were Not Spoiled reveals an eye for often neglected details, of information thought to be marginal and so too frequently lost to students of history. A basic function of memoir is to give witness to a time and a way of life gone by, and this book succeeds well at this. In its pages, we find ourselves going with Lucille into textile mills of the Northeast US, living religious orthodoxy, and creating an identity for herself as a woman, wife and mother in the context of industrial New England.. -
Growing Up Franco-American (With No Black Patent-Leather Shoes)
Intended for all, Growing Up Franco-American (with no black patent leather shoes) is the intriguing story of courageous grandparent and parent immigrants who, at once, heartily embraced their new country, the United States, yet remained inherently true to many of their cherished Old World cultural traditions -- all as transmitted to, an perceived by -- one of their first-generation American children, author Lorraine Dutile Masure. Acting as a cultural tour guide, she here tells stories of what it was really like growing up with a rich Franco heritage across multiple venues of home, family, church, school, and other settings. Seniors also will see themselves in her stories. And younger people will be amazed at how quaint life was not so long ago. Informative and, as the author reflects back through the rear-view mirror of her own life, some of it's pretty comical too! -
Marcella Belanger Violette Scrapbooks, 1920-2005
This collection consists of 25 scrapbooks of documents relating to Marcella Belanger Violette's lifetime of public service. The scrapbooks, comprised of more than 3,000 pages, cover the time period from 1920 through 2004. A wide range of topics are included in the collection with key areas being: the town of Van Buren, the Saint John Valley, Franco-Americans, the Acadians, Bilingualism, Education, Politics, St. Bruno’s Church in Van Buren, the Good Sheppard Sisters, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway and the Violette family. Each volume is filled with photos, newspaper articles, letters, cards, telegrams, postcards, brochures, and other items Marcella carefully selected for inclusion. Researchers studying on any of the main topics areas and the general public simply browsing will benefit from this unique resource (see the Collection Guide for a more detailed description of each scrapbook). These scrapbooks were collected and created by Marcella and archivally preserved by her daughter-in-law, Holly Ramsdell Violette. -
Heliotrope: French Heritage Women Create
This anthology gestures to "the more" of the stories that spin from within the conversations of Franco American women. In these pages, a Franco American woman tells a story, that is, she takes something from her experience, her own or someone else's, and makes it into the experience of the reader, the listener, the viewer. This anthology also gathers us to listen to stories that we are privileged to hear into being and becoming for our future as Franco American women -
From Mills to Millennium: Documenting Social Change through Oral Histories among Three Generations of Franco-Americans in Manchester
The Franco-Americans who emigrated to the New England region did so during the industrial revolution, fleeing the starvation and overpopulation in Canada. Those who settled in Manchester, New Hampshire, also developed a community on the West Side of the city making the transition from Canada to Manchester's little Canada section easier for French immigrants. The West Side held the religious traditions and social and fraternal organizations with which this group was familiar. In addition to the history of Manchester, the researcher drew from sociological theories on assimilation, the interdisciplinary theories on place attachment and identity, and combined these approaches with the oral history of place memory. This dissertation contains the oral histories of sixteen Franco-Americans representing three generations ranging from ages nineteen to ninety. The intent of the collection is to preserve the lived experiences and memories of the Franco-American in Manchester. In order to provide a framework for understanding the oral histories presented here, four major themes were provided: family, education, religion and discrimination. The shifts observed across the generations in terms of the perceived role that the four themes play in their lives are detailed in the narrative portion. There are two components to this study on Manchester's Franco-Americans. The oral histories captured on the accompanying two hour and forty minute film are supplemented in the written document by recorded memories. Excerpts of written narratives also ground the interviews within the historical backdrop of the Franco-American in Manchester. The film is central to the study and provides videoed interviews from individuals with a French Canadian heritage. This study documented how attitudes and traditions changed across three generations of Franco-Americans within the greater Manchester area. The groups were characterized by and uniquely identified through the traditions and rituals of this rich culture. The identity with the Franco-American traditions and culture has lessened through the succeeding generations. In addition, the increased emotional separation from the Roman Catholic Church and geographic mobility away from the West Side is noted with its subsequent impact on identity with Franco traditions. All participants were recorded using state of the art video and audio equipment. The film included here is edited for dissertation purposes. -
The Lively Legacy of Blackie Langlais
Brief profile of Old Town, Maine native and recently deceased sculptor of Cushing, Maine, Bernard "Blackie" Langlais. Several photographs of his work, including one of the artist outside his home. -
The Fragrance of Rose : The Cult of Woonsocket's 'Saint' Endures Despite Official Doubt
Report on famed Woonsocket, Rhode Island woman of Catholic piety, Marie Rose Ferron, and the faith community that developed around her during her short life and after her death in 1936. The alleged stigmatist whose shrines continue to exist; whose cult of believers lingers after she was denied sainthood, and still long after evidence has been amounted against the legitimacy of her healing powers and stigmatic wounds. -
Lucky Yvon : How a starving Yosemite ironmonger became the King of Patagonia
Magazine feature on American climber, outdoors enthusiast, and entrepreneur, Yvon Chouinard, founder of the Patagonia company. Profile of Chouinard's climbing adventures, his company's successes, and the convergence of a love for the outdoors with a knack for business. How Patagonia has changed the climbing industry, and how a climber relates to the business world. Chouinard's image featured on magazine cover. -
About Men : A Middle-Aged Orphan
Short essay on the recurring presence of writer Clark Blaise's deceased father - the stories he both took with him and left behind, and the impact of certain memories of this man on Blaise in his adult life. -
Sentinel editorial writer inept in treatment of ethnic slurs
Letter to the editor berating Waterville, Maine's Morning Sentinel editorial staff for failing to criticize a Portland-based radio station (WBLM) that frequently included in its morning show a segment poking fun at a Franco American character. Cites an article in which the editorial staff "trivialize[d]" complaints against the radio program's arguable ethnic discrimination, and chastises the newspaper for missing an opportunity to heighten local conversation about ethnic humor and cultural stereotypes. -
Your New Country
Transcription of a Biddeford, Maine, woman's life as told by her in brief stories to interviewers. Her youth in Quebec - being the oldest child of a large family - and her community there. Her marriage and snippets of her later life in Maine. Some daily habits and holiday traditions. A documentary profile, illustrated in black and white photo. -
In search of the real Kerouac
Review of the documentary film on Jack Kerouac, entitled, "Whatever Happened to Kerouac?" (Richard Lerner and Lewis McAdam, 1987). Film is a biographical portrait of the Lowell, Massachusetts, writer, featuring interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and William S. Burroughs, among others. Article written on the occasion of the film's showing in Somerville, Massachusetts. -
Franco-American man helps others awaken cultural backgrounds through writing workshops : Mapping Memories
Article about fiction writer Denis Ledoux of Lewiston, Maine, who has turned to helping others write their own personal histories. Ledoux's workshop, "Turning Memories into Memoirs," has sparked international interest from writers, genealogists, community historians, and others in recording their family histories. -
A is for Allagash' : The life of a northern Maine man
Article on a recent memoir on the life and times of Louis Pelletier in the Allagash, Maine, of the past century. His family, his work in the woods, and his memories of early twentieth-century northern Maine. Co-authored by Louis and his daughter, fiction writer Cathie Pelletier. -
'American Ghosts' : Haunted House
A review of "American Ghosts" - memoir from fiction writer and Providence, Rhode Island native, David Plante. The reviewer describes the book as "a perfect example of the cockpit autobiography," leading the reader into the thoughts and images of a writer's life from the navigational standpoint. -
LePage's Franco-American heritage depicted in mural
Letter to the editor criticizing Maine governor Paul LePage for his order to remove a mural depicting Maine's labor history from the walls of the Maine Department of Labor. A reference to how Maine's and LePage's Franco American history is largely intertwined with the history of Maine labor. An attack on LePage with reference to distinctions of economic class. -
Kerouac in Black and White
An essay in exploration of Jack Kerouac's French-Canadianness in twentieth-century America. How digging into this particular ethnicity, time, and place shapes how one considers Kerouac's late-life ideas about race, his relationship with religion, or the stylings of his writing. Blaise considers Kerouac alongside other fiction writers (William Faulkner, Theodore Dreiser, William Saroyan, Thomas Wolfe) that, to Blaise, have engaged their fiction in similar conversations with both sentimentality and American diversity. From the author of "I Had a Father: A Post-Modern Autobiography" and "Lunar Attractions." Also published in "Selected Essays" by Clark Blaise (Emeryville, Ontario: Biblioasis, 2008). -
'Beast' nostalgic for Quebec roots
Article subtitled, "This first novel describes the attempt of a Franco-American to find out who he is." A review of the 1984 novel "The Questing Beast" and a brief biographical sketch of its author, Richard Hébert. -
Class dramatizes the Franco-Mainer experience
Bowdoin College senior seminar in the French language culminates in a documentary film and a theatrical piece. Students used information learned through over 60 hours of interviews with local Francos. -
Backing Calumet Club
Letter to the editor regarding the 1989 Le Club Calumet controversy sparked by a woman's seeking entry into the all-male club. Offers a measure of support for the Augusta, Maine, Club in its rejection of the woman's request. -
Private clubs can exclude
Letter to the editor on the subject of Augusta, Maine's Franco American social club, Le Club Calumet, excluding women from its membership. -
Do it this way, Nancy
Letter to the editor chastising Nancy Albert Ellis, the woman who in 1989 sought entry into the all-male Franco-American social club, Le Club Calumet, of Augusta, Maine. -
Club is like a private home
Letter to the editor questioning the motives of Nancy Albert Ellis, the woman who in 1989 sought entry into an all-male Franco American social club, Le Club Calumet, of Augusta, Maine. -
Calumet should stay as it is
Letter to the editor in support of the 1989 decision of Augusta, Maine's Le Club Calumet to reject the membership application of a woman, Nancy Albert Ellis, and remain an all-male organization. -
Calumet's first-class women
Letter to the editor lauding the women who volunteer at the all-male Franco American social club, Le Club Calumet, in Augusta, Maine, without becoming club members. Comes in response to the controversy of a woman whose attempt at membership in the Club was rejected, and who appealed to the Maine Human Rights Commission to prove the Club's unlawful discrimination based on her sex. -
'Le Club' is masculine
Letter to the editor that argues (tongue-in-cheek?) how the gender of the French term "le club" is reason enough for Le Club Calumet of Augusta, Maine, to justify rejecting a woman's application for membership in 1989. -
Ellis' win will destroy club
Letter to the editor arguing that if Le Club Calumet, a Franco-American social club in Augusta, Maine, is forced by the Maine courts to admit women, and is thereby ruled a "public" organization, it will no longer be able to limit its membership based on ethnicity. -
Was it sex discrimination?
Letter to the editor that asks whether discrimination based on gender is different from discrimination based on ethnicity, and if Le Club Calumet, a Franco-American social club in Augusta, Maine, is not allowed by its private status to limit its membership based on both sex and ethnicity. -
Teaching the wrong lesson
Letter to the editor in response to Nancy Albert Ellis' objection to being refused membership in Le Club Calumet, a Franco-American social club in Augusta, Maine. Letter writer cites the Club's right to legislate as a private organization, even to limit membership based on one's citizenship. -
Kiss old Calumet goodbye
Letter to the editor criticizing the comments of Le Club Calumet's legal representation, Norman Bourget, and giving thanks to the 1989 decision by the Maine Human Rights Commission declaring the Club discriminatory for its refusal to admit women as members. -
Private club made public
Letter to the editor claiming that the Maine Human Rights Commission discriminated against the Franco-American community when it ruled that Le Club Calumet was a public organization and should admit women as members - or else be taken to court on account of its discriminatory bylaws. -
Calumet faces big problems
Letter to the editor acknowledging the problems that would potentially arise for Le Club Calumet - an all-male Franco American social club in Augusta, Maine - if it were declared public by the judicial system, and thus forced by law to admit women as members. -
Why sue Club Calumet?
Letter to the editor questioning the Maine Human Rights Commission's decision to sue le Club Calumet of Augusta, Maine. MHRC asserted the unlawful discrimination inherent to the Club's bylaws that restrict membership based on sex. -
Out of kitchen for good
Letter to the editor written in response to a guest column penned by Augusta, Maine performer, Jean-Paul Poulain. This letter addresses the need for cultural sensitivity, but argues that women must be involved - including at the level of membership in the historically all-male Franco American social club, Le Club Calumet. -
An Open Letter to Whom It May Concern: A Rebuttal to Calumet Club Superior Court's Judgment
A lengthy open letter concerning the potential effects of Kennebec County Superior Court's ruling against Le Club Calumet, charging it to begin admitting women into the membership ranks of its historically all-male establishment in Augusta, Maine. The letter's primary concern is the court's designation of the Club as a "public accommodation," not a private one, that might potentially be forced to admit any person without regard for ethnicity. -
Not private vs. public
A letter to the editor in response to Maurice Violette's "An Open Letter..." (9 October 1991), contesting Violette's fixation on the matter of "public vs. private" as the keystone of the debate surrounding Le Club Calumet's recent Kennebec County, Maine, courtroom loss, and its being forced by law to admit women to the ranks of its membership. -
Calumet hurt its own
Letter to the editor opposed to the Maine Supreme Court's decision in favor of Le Club Calumet barring women from membership in its Augusta, Maine, organization. -
Ellis wants media attention
Letter to the editor questioning the motives of Nancy Albert Ellis in her filing suit against Le Club Calumet of Augusta, Maine, for refusing her a membership based on her sex - a suit she eventually lost in the Maine Supreme Court. -
Anti-Calumet attitude
Letter to the editor berating Augusta, Maine's Kennebec Journal for its selective coverage of the controversy involving Le Club Calumet and Nancy Ellis - a battle over gender and club membership that landed both parties in the Maine Supreme Court. -
Equal or a step down?
Letter to the editor questioning the meaning of the phrase "equal rights" as it has been used in the conversation between Nancy Albert Ellis and the all-male Club Calumet of Augusta, Maine. -
French women must unite
Letter to the editor calling upon "all women of French ancestry" to unite in response to the Maine Supreme Court's decision to allow the Calumet Club of Augusta, Maine, to refuse membership to women. -
Men should do it all
Letter to the editor calling for gender equality in cutural organizations. This comes in support of Nancy Albert Ellis, whose bid to join the Calumet Club in Augusta, Maine, was rejected, and ultimately denied in a decision by the Maine Supreme Court. -
Club lost peace pipe
Letter to the editor berating Le Club Calumet of Augusta, Maine, for its refusal of Nancy Albert Ellis' membership bid on account of her sex. The author seeks a peaceful resolution to what became a controversial issue surrounding the inclusion of women in Club ranks. -
Doesn't make it right
Short letter to the editor written against Maurice Violette's letter of May 28, 1992, coming in the wake of Le Calumet Club's rejection of a woman vying for membership in the Augusta, Maine, all-male organization. -
Saving Franco culture
Letter to the editor calling upon Franco Americans and Le Club Calumet to look past the controversial 1992 Maine Supreme Court case regarding club identity and gender, and to consider the best way of using all available resources for cultural preservation. -
He exemplifies the modern priesthood
Extended article on Augusta, Maine, Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Valmond Gilbert, celebrant of St. Augustine Church. Discusses his community involvement - religious, economic, political, and otherwise. Includes photos of Fr. Gilbert at mass, with Augusta schoolchildren, and with Augusta legislator, Rep. Patrick Paradis. -
'Quiet Presence' still resonates with cultural awareness
Article on Dyke Hendrickson's 1980 oral history book, "Quiet Presence," and its perceivable resonance into the present day. -
Nov. 9 Letters to the Editor: French ascendency
Letter to the editor questioning the reasoning behind Maine governor-elect Paul LePage's emphasis on his "French" heritage, and the value of his being the first elected Franco-American governor to the state. -
Deep Woods and River Roads : Voices from the Kennebec-Chaudiière Heritage Corridor
Subtitled, "An Audio Tour of Route 201 in Maine." A production of short interviews and other recordings that capture the people from each major section of Maine's historic route running north to south along the Kennebec River. Designed to accompany and advertise tourism along the Kennebec-Chaudiière Heritage Corridor. Narrated by National Public Radio's Nick Spitzer. Includes segments with artists, teachers, performers, cooks, loggers, fishermen, builders, painters, and more. Writers Wesley McNair and Richard Russo read from their work. Some history of the Penobscot Nation, Benedict Arnold's Expedition, the French Canadian immigration, Bath Iron Works, and other persons, places, and events important to the region. Audio begins geographically in Jackman, Maine, and ends at Popham Beach, Maine. CD is accompanied by a descriptive guide with regional art and summaries of each covered geographic section along the Kennebec River. Contributors listed in order of appearance. Tracks play in the following order: Introduction Maple sugaring [Somerset County] Jackman in Winter [Jackman, ME] The Old Canada Road [Pleasant Ridge Plantation and Bingham, ME] Logging [Skowhegan, ME] White water rafting [Somerset County] Fiddleheading [West Forks, ME] Birch bark canoe making [Solon, ME] Fly fishing [Oakland, ME] South Solon Meeting House [Skowhegan, ME] Grange Hall [Norridgewock, ME] Poet, Wesley McNair [Mercer,ME] Franco-Americans in Waterville [Waterville, ME] Mills [Waterville, ME] Benedict Arnold [Pittston, ME] Merrymeeting Bay [near Bath, ME] Farming [Dresden, ME] Ship building [Bath and Phippsburg,ME] Lobstering [Bath, ME] Popham [Popham, ME] OuttroTags Acculturation and Assimilation, Art and Architecture, Augusta ME, Bath ME, Business and Economics, Caratunk ME, Community: Customs and Social Life, Dead River Valley ME, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Farming and Agriculture, Fishing, Folklore, Food, Forestry, Gardiner ME, Hallowell ME, Hunting, Jackman ME, Kennebec River Valley, Madison ME, Maine, Mercer ME, Mills and Mill Work, Moosehead Lake Region, Moxie ME, Native Americans, Norridgewock ME, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Phippsburg ME, Pittston ME, Poetry, Popham ME, Québec, Richmond ME, Seguin Island ME, Skowhegan ME, Solon ME, Somerset County ME, Sports and Leisure, Travel and Movement, Waterville ME, West Forks ME -
Franco-American Writers
A WERU FM community radio broadcast of readings by two Maine writers, Rhea Côté Robbins and Trudy Chambers Price. Côté Robbins, who introduces her readings with a short talk on violence at home and in the workplace, shares from a work-in-progress entitled, "down the Plains." Chambers Price shares two chapters from her memoir, "The Cows Are Out!: Two Decades on a Maine Dairy Farm" (chapter 12, "A Real Farmer's Tan," and chapter 10, "The Cows Are Out!"). Readings are followed by a discussion with both writers about their lives, their work, and the stories that they and other Franco American women hold. -
Ron Currie, Jr. discusses Everything Matters!
Waterville, Maine, writer, Ron Currie, Jr., discusses his book "Everything Matters!," his life, and his writing, and takes questions from Duke University's class of 2014. Currie's novel was chosen to be read and discussed by the entire first-year class at Duke. -
Hot Lunch
Documentary radio piece on the cooks and servers - the "lunch ladies" - in the kitchen at Biddeford High School in Biddeford, Maine. How their work often transcends food service and their relationships with students become compassionate and somewhat parental. This recording is a student project of the SALT Institute in Portland, Maine. Broadcast by New Hampshire Public Radio on the program "Word of Mouth," January 7, 2010. -
Hot Lunch : In the Kitchen at Biddeford High School
Audio recording of kitchen and cafeteria workers of Biddeford High School in Biddeford, Maine, accompanied by a video photo montage. Brief interviews during the workday and short profiles of the kitchen staff. -
Growing Up Franco In Lewiston
Oral interview with a woman recalling her youth and family in Lewiston, Maine. Her memories of the pervasiveness of French language and culture in the first half of the twentieth century, and her thoughts on the decline of French language and community. Recollections of her family's Catholic piety. The ways in which French language and Franco American culture remain part of her adult life. Recorded in the Story Bank mobile recording studio at the 2009 American Folk Festival in Bangor, Maine. -
Acadian Home Cooking : At Mom's Apron Strings
Oral interview with the owner of Café de le Place in Madawaska, Maine. The role of food in his family life and historically in the lives of the Acadians of the St. John River Valley. Some descriptions of famous Acadian dishes. Recorded in the Story Bank mobile recording studio at the 2009 American Folk Festival in Bangor, Maine. Presented in video montage form: interview audio with pictures of the interviewee, his family, and his work. -
John Dufresne's Requiem Mass
Georgia Public Broadcasting radio interview of Worcester, Massachusetts native John Dufresne on the occasion of his new novel, "Requiem, Mass." Discussion about the novel's characters and setting, Dufresne's ideas about autobiographical writing and writing in general, as well as some aspects of the author's Catholicism. At the end of the interview, Dufresne reads a passage from the novel (p. 168). -
Roughing the Uppers : The Great Shoe Strike of 1937
From the Lewiston Sun Journal: "The documentary tells the story of a strike that involved thousands of shoe workers and more than a dozen factories in Lewiston and Auburn [Maine]. Seeking higher wages and recognition of their union affiliation with the newly formed Congress of Industrial Organizations, the largely Franco-American workers called for a strike on March 24, 1937, during a mass meeting at Lewiston's city hall." -
Maine Watch with Jennifer Rooks: Franco-Americans in Photos
Maine Public Broadcasting Network television show focusing on news, events, and people important to the state of Maine. Here, part two of a three-part episode. "Franco-Americans in Photos" is an interview with journalist Dyke Hendrickson, author of the book "Quiet Presence" (1980), on his more recent publication entitled "Franco-Americans of Maine," a cultural photo history.
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Le Grand Jack
Part-fiction documentary on the life and works of Jack Kerouac, a writer from Lowell, Massachusetts, most famous for his Beat Generation novel, "On the Road." Pris de l'ONF: "Docufiction sur Jack Kerouac, un des membres les plus importants du mouvement de la Beat Generation. Sur la route , une de ses œuvres les plus connues a rendu l'écrivain et poiète américain célièbre apriès sa mort en 1969. Ses textes ont grandement contribué à la révolution culturelle, sexuelle et sociale des années 1960. Archives, photos, entrevues et reconstitution d'époque, servent de trame au réalisateur pour décortiquer le mythe du héros." -
Hard Work
Full title of the film: "Hard Work: 'To Make Both Ends Meet' : Maine Women's Voices, 1888." From Folkfilms.com: "In 1888 the Maine State Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics conducted a survey to assess working conditions for women in the state's shops and factories. The bureau hired Flora Haines of Bangor to complete the survey. She spoke with women in the workplace and handed out over six hundred questionnaires that asked about health and safety issues, wages and work hours, sanitary conditions in the boarding houses, and other matters....At the end of the questionnaire was this statement: 'Make any suggestions that you think will tend to improve your condition at work.' Hundreds of women responded....In this documentary the women's voices are brought to life again to tell the story of working conditions for women in the latter part of the 19th century in Maine. Using interviews, historical photos, and video from present day factories 'Hard Work' details the rise of the female labor force in the state's mills and factories and explores the conditions that women had to endure both on and off the job." -
"Bonjour" with Chantal Plante & Celine Baribeau
A public television broadcast out of Bedford, New Hampshire, "Bonjour" features highlights of Quebec and New England for the purpose of re-educating New Hampshire about the breadth of its French heritage, seen across the state in its Franco Americans. This episode is the inaugural broadcast, featuring an extended interview with co-host and professional photographer Celine Baribeau. -
Bonjour: Fondue
The second broadcast of Bedford, New Hampshire's "Bonjour." Chantal, Celine, and their special guest, Luci, talk to us while they show how to make and cook la fondue. -
Bonjour: Travel Tips
The third episode of Plante's and Baribeau's public broadcast, "Bonjour," taking its viewers on a trip through Montreal and Quebec City and giving plenty of advice to vacationers-to-be. -
Bonjour: Franco-American Centre
The fourth episode of public television's "Bonjour" takes place on site at Manchester, New Hampshire's Franco-American Centre, featuring interviews with some of the staff there and a special feature on the 2010 New Hampshire Franco-American of the year. -
Discussion of "Reveil! Waking Up French"
A roundtable discussion led by writer Abby Paige about Franco American heritage in Vermont with respect to the themes in Ben Levine's film, "Reveil!" From the Center for Media and Democracy: " 'Réveil! -- Waking Up French' is a powerful documentary film by Ben Levine that explores the struggle for cultural survival among the French-Canadian communities of New England today. Abby Paige, writer-performer of 'Piecework: When We Were French,' will attend and lead a discussion after the film. Abby will be seeing 'Reveil!' for her first time. The film, now in the lending collection at the library, is closely related to the themes of her acclaimed 2009 play. Presented by the Fletcher Free Library community language programs." -
America and Lewis Hine
Documentary film about twentieth-century photographer and historian Lewis Hine, most famous for exposing poor working conditions and child labor in industrial America. Hine, as seen in this film, was also the photographer commissioned to capture on film the construction of the Empire State Building in New York City. -
Cyberfair 2001
Students at North Country Union High School in Newport, Vermont are champions of the 2001 Cyberfair, a worldwide website design competition. Their site, LifeonTheBorder.com (no longer in service), was about their Franco American community's heritage, including interviews with family members and commentary on their geographic proximity to Canada. This is the news footage on their competition victory. -
C'est la vie : Jane Martin's Franco-American Heritage
Episode of a CBC broadcast, "C'est la vie," whose feature is Franco American life in southern Maine. Biddeford, the hometown of narrator Jane Martin, is the episode's main setting. Contains interviews with Martin's aunt and parents in Biddeford and neighboring Wells Beach. Discussions about language, cultural difference, and travel between Quebec and the United States. Features the song "Cet hiver là " by Michel Rivard. -
The Belles of New England
A presentation by William Moran on his book, "The Belles of New England," as a portion of the 2002 Concord Festival of Authors, Concord, Massachusetts. From C-SPAN: "Mr. Moran discussed his book 'The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove,' published by Thomas Dunne Books. The book recounts the rise and fall of the New England textile industry of the 19th century. Mr. Moran traces the experiences of the thousands of women who left New England farm towns and the Irish, Canadian and European immigrants who came to work in the textile mills. At a time when women had no political influence, these workers opposed mill owners like the Cabots and Lowells of Boston for fair wages and safer working conditions. Following his remarks, Mr. Moran answered questions from members of the audience."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Biddeford ME, Boston MA, Business and Economics, Connecticut, Emigration and Immigration, Farming and Agriculture, Gender and Sexuality, Great Britain, Ireland, Labor History, Lawrence MA, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Mills and Mill Work, Nashua NH, New Bedford MA, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Saco ME, Saco River Valley, Social History, Sports and Leisure, Waltham MA -
Le Sel de la semaine: Seguin rencontre Kerouac
Du ''Sel de la Semaine'' animé par Fernand Séguin à Radio-Canada. Contiens une interview avec Jack Kerouac sur sa vie et ses oeuvres, un métrage de Lowell, Massachusetts des années 1960s, et des interviews publiques avec des hommes franco-américains à un club social. [Contains a Quebec interview with Jack Kerouac on his life and works, as well as some footage of Lowell, Massachusetts, from the 1960s, and some public interviews with Franco-American men at a Lowell social club.] De Radio-Canada: "L'entrevue que Jack Kerouac accorde à Fernand Seguin se déroule en français puisque l'écrivain est issu d'une famille canadienne française installée au Massachusetts. L'auteur parle de son enfance, de son goût pour les voyages, de sa façon d'écrire. Kerouac donne également sa définition du terme « beat generation », qui traduit la misière des Noirs de l'Amérique sudiste, la béatitude et le rythme jazz."
(NOTE: The titles of the clips below are additions made by the YouTube publisher. "Jack Kerouac is Quebecois" is not the official title of the episode.)
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What Happened To Kerouac?
Documentary about Franco American writer Jack Kerouac, the American literary and cultural movement spurred on by what is known as the "Beat Generation, and the countdown of Kerouac's final days. Features support from the following persons: Allen Ginsberg, Edie Parker Kerouac, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, Steve Allen, William Buckley, Charlie Parker, Neal Cassady, Carolyn Cassady, Gary Snyder, Jan Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael McClure, Herbert Huncke, Fran Landesman, Ed Sanders, John Clellon Holmes, Ann Charters, Ed White, Diane DiPrima, Father "Spike" Morissette, Joyce Johnson, Robert Creeley, Lewis Yablonsky. -
Inside, Looking Out
Memoir of famed television soap opera writer and playwright, Harding Lemay. From his tumultuous early youth - one of thirteen children - on a New York farm along the Canadian border, to his lonely escape to New York City at the age of 17 and the friends who find him there. His later military training and participation in World War II in Europe. Back to Manhattan to one failed and one successful marriage, and to live and work among books: in libraries, with publishing executives, and finally as a writer. His persistent love of books and struggles with language. -
Spoons' Spoons : The Life and Times of Theodore Edouard "Spoons" Michaud
Biography of Eddie "Spoons" Michaud, renowned musician from Old Town, Maine. Stories of his life, times, family, and friends from 1923 to the present. Includes black and white photographs of Michaud throughout his life, both with and without his namesake instrument - the spoons - as well as select representations of maps of Maine towns. -
Bird Cloud : A Memoir
Narrative of the discovery and inhabiting of the author's homestead along Wyoming's North Platte River. Memoirs from the author's youth and family life, relatives, their cultures and their mobility. Her youth across New England. Historical, archaeological, and genealogical portraits of her family, her various regions, and their people woven throughout. Vivid descriptions of natural life in the rural United States that add to several chapters on the processes of architecting, building, and getting acquainted with her Wyoming home - Bird Cloud - and its own histories. From the author of "The Shipping News," "Accordion Crimes," and several other notable works of fiction.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Art and Architecture, Connecticut, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Genealogy, Geography, Maine, Montréal QC, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Rhode Island, Saratoga WY, Travel and Movement, Vermont, Willimantic CT, Wyoming -
The Voice Is All : The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac
Biographical portrait of Jack Kerouac, with uniquely heavy emphasis on the suggested influence of his French Canadian heritage - and the French language - on the style and content of his creative works. Written by a Kerouac contemporary and former friend. Covers from Kerouac's early life and those of his parents, to 1951, shortly after the publication of his first novel, The Town and the City. -
Becoming a Man : Half a Life Story
Autobiography and coming-out narrative of Paul Monette, an Andover, Massachusetts writer. Monette recounts twenty-five closeted years of alienation and invisibility, explorations of his sexual identity, and observations on the sexual prejudice and violences around him. Growing up working-class in Massachusetts; his ill younger brother; stints at prep-school and Yale in the 1960s; time spent in England; a return to Massachusetts. Written during the battle with AIDS that eventually claimed the author's life. Winner of the 1992 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Republished in 2004. -
Journal d'un bibliophile
Témoignage autobiographique d'un homme à Manchester, New Hampshire et sa relation avec les livres. Son accumulation à vie de milles de livres de "Canadiana" et "Franco-Americana," et les histoires qui l'accompagnent, vers leur lieu de repos à l'Association Canado-Américaine. Sa vie comme collectionneur de livres. Comprend aussi des lettres et des articles de journaux relatifs à la Collection Lambert. Note: La Collection Lambert réside maintenant à Saint Anselm College à Manchester, New Hampshire. -
Memory Babe : A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac
Biography of Lowell, Massachusetts native, poet, and author, Jack Kerouac, widely known as a founding participant in the 20th century USA literary culture that came to be called the "Beat Movement," or the "Beat Generation." Kerouac's life from birth to early death; from Lowell, to New York, to San Francisco, to Denver, to Tampa and St. Petersburg, and back again. The cultural, interpersonal, and geographic contexts for his poetry and writings of autobiographical fiction. Anecdotes and aspects of his public and private lives, and where these lives changed and converged. Well-known for the biographer's extensive use of archival materials and interviews with Kerouac's contemporaries. -
When We Were the Kennedys : A Memoir from Mexico, Maine
Memoir from Mexico, Maine native and author of fiction, Monica Wood. Recalls the period of the author's youth around the time of the sudden death of her father. Her family's experience of the loss of its breadwinner in the 1960s. The shape of her 1963 mill-centered community and the diversity of people who inhabited it; portraits of the power of religion and industry among people in the towns of Rumford and Mexico. President John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination - and the widowhood of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - recounted in light of the disruptive passing of the author's father earlier that same year. -
My Last Million Readers
Autobiography of famed newspaperman, Emile Gavreau. His youth in the first decade of the twentieth century in New Haven, Connecticut, and among family in Montréal. A family's pervasive Catholicism; an early attachment to reading; intimate portraits of his father. His early work for the New Haven Journal-Courrier, later for the Hartford Courantaround the time of World War I, and at the beginning of the New York Daily Graphic. -
Brothers and Heroes : A Chronicle of Military Service of Six Americans
Military stories and individual histories of the military duties of six Augusta, Maine brothers - Armand, Laurent, Paul, Jean, William, and Louis Lambert. Written by the family's youngest son, George. Narrative covers enlistment periods and active duty between 1941 and 1988. Appendices contain diary entries, court proceedings, individual chronologies of service, individual stations of duty, photographs, bibliography, and other information. -
Vagabond Dreams Come True
Original autobiography of twentieth-century singer and musician, Rudy Vallée, who was born in Island Pond, Vermont and spent his youth in Westbrook, Maine. His early life, time at the University of Maine and Yale University, and his early music career. His travels and successes, and some of his thoughts on fame. -
My Time Is Your Time : The Story of Rudy Vallee
Memoirs of twentieth-century singer and musician, Rudy Vallée. Co-authored. Stories from his early life in Westbrook, Maine, and his college years in New Haven, Connecticut. Events along his rise to stardom, and the varieties of entertainment he participated in while in the public eye. -
Girls of Tender Age : A Memoir
Memoir of a woman growing up in the immigrant city of Hartford, Connecticut in the 1950s. Her French Canadian and Italian relatives, her childhood, early adulthood, and the processes of recollecting them. Divided into five parts: Mortality; Brain Jog; the Quest; What Goes Around...; The Future Is Now; followed by notes and acknowledgements. Alternates between stories from the life of the author, her friends and relatives, and the murder of a childhood friend by a Hartford serial child abuser named Robert Malm. The author's efforts at retelling the story of Malm's life, trial, and Connecticut execution, and their intersection with her life.Tags Community: Customs and Social Life, Connecticut, Death and Disaster, Emigration and Immigration, Family, Gender and Sexuality, Hartford CT, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Italy, Language and Linguistics, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Polish Americans, Québec, Religion, Vermont, Violence, Youth -
My Maine Summer
Memories of a childhood summer in the author's hometown of Van Buren, Maine, with one week spent on a vacation in Portland. Focuses on friendship, family, and baseball. -
Kerouac : The Definitive Biography
Recent historical biography of Lowell, Massachusetts writer, Jack Kerouac. Based largely on primary sources. Written by an independent scholar whose childhood and later life was also spent in Lowell. -
Thank you, Georgette : My 26 Years in the Legislature
Memoirs and selected speeches of a Maine state legislator from the city of Lewiston. Contains commentary on some of the campaigns, issues, actors, and events significant to Bérubé and her career in Maine politics between 1970 and 2000. Some of her accomplishments as the first woman representative of her city, and one of the longest-serving of any Maine legislator. Contains the following chapters: Name's Georgette Remarks to Rotary International and Canadian Visitors 10/29/93 Growing Up In Lewiston Political Campaigns Issues and Programs Partisanship/Personalities Legislation GOVERNMENT Pot Pourri Random Thoughts Remarks On Key IssuesTags Auburn ME, Augusta ME, Business and Economics, Gender and Sexuality, Government and Politics, Greene ME, Leeds ME, Lewiston ME, Lisbon ME, Livermore ME, Maine, Minot ME, Northern Ireland, Orono ME, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Sabattus ME, South Africa, Turner ME, Wales ME -
Entre Amis
Collection de lettres envoyées par P. Louis Lalande, S.J., à son ami Arthur Prévost, du Québec, du Canada, des fois aux États-Unis, et d'ailleurs. Rend une chronique de la vie du prêtre et de sa relation avec son ami. Publiée sept ans apriès la mort de M. Prévost.
<br/><br/>Contient une piièce décrivant l'émigration canadienne-française en Nouvelle-Angleterre et de la croissance dans ce lieu de la communauté francophone et catholique. (pp. 62-67) -
Man in the Middle
Short personal essay written by a journalist from Maine. Reflections on leaving Maine early in life, eventually for New York City, and returning for his retirement. His early commitment to mastering English in spite of his home French, and both the personal and the more general, historical issues that this choice and language loss raised for him upon his return. Arguments bolstered by events surrounding the mispronunciation of his French name, the cultural insensitivity he still finds in his home state, and the attempts of others to reckon with discrimination toward French cultures in Maine. First published serially in Le FAROG Forum , in three parts. Later included in a 1970s collection of materials entitled, "Franco American Resources in Education" developed by Claire Bolduc. As part of this collection, the essay is followed by six discussion questions related to issues raised by the author. -
Quebec to New England : The Life of Monsignor Charles Dauray
Biography of a priest who emigrated to New England from Quebec and became an instrumental figure in the Providence, Rhode Island, Roman Catholic diocese. His early life in Canada, his movement to the United States on account of illness, and his lifelong attention to Rhode Island's Roman Catholics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His pastoral leadership of Most Precious Blood Parish in Woonsocket. From Bruce Humphries, Inc., Publishers: "The career of Monsignor Charles Dauray is actually the history of the French-speaking population of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, from 1872 to 1931." -
Chére Ma-Ma
Remembrances of a French Canadian family in New Hampshire, or the biography of a Canadian immigrant mother as written by her American daughter. Family life, work, and prayer in rural New England. Presented as if in flashback, with the story beginning as the daughter attempts to communicate with her aged and ill mother in a nursing home. Constructed in short vignettes pertinent to the mother's life as mother, each section set out with a descriptive header. Includes some poems from the author. From the book jacket: " 'Chére Ma-Ma' (Dear Mom) is a true story which tells of the determination and perseverance of a French Canadian woman, Mathilda (Bourassa) Charest, who raised a family of twelve children, and how she survived the everyday circumstances of truth in poverty, especially so, during the country's Depression; and her love of God through the Catholic faith." -
A Is for Allagash : A Lumberjack's Life
Stories from the Allagash, Maine, of old. Told in 26 parts - one part for a salient word corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. Written from the recollections of a longtime Allagash resident. Interlocked portraits of his family and life there, set together in the manner of memoir. Illustrated in photos and color paintings of local settings. From the father of northern Maine fiction writer, Cathie Pelletier (a.k.a., K.C. McKinnon). -
Odyssey of Love
A biography of Westbrook, Maine, native, Sister Marie Ange Larrivee, a nun in the Order of the Presentation of Mary. Stories that take us from her youth in Westbrook, through her Canadian religious education, all the way to her travels in Europe and her experiences of World War II in France. From a Rumford, Maine, author. -
Snow Man
A profile of Boston and New York social activist, Urbain Ledoux. Ledoux, known as "Mr. Zero," was an early advocate for the homeless and jobless of the United States. His parents emigrated from Quebec to work in Connecticut and Maine in the 19th century. This biographical, editorial piece sits among others in a volume dedicated to American public figures of the 1920s. -
Legacy : A Biography of Rev. Armand "Spike" Morissette, O.M.I.
The life of Father Armand Morissette - better known as Father Spike - Catholic priest of Lowell, Massachusetts. Father Spike was widely known for his compassion and ease of friendship, as well as for his community activism and ahead-of-the-curve political and theological views. Stories and memories of the Lowell native from his birth in 1910 to the book's publication in 1985. Includes his schooling, service as chaplain to the French Navy, his relationship with Jack Kerouac, and the breadth of his participation in public life. Appended with interviews with Father Spike, as well as a selection of several of his speeches. -
Pas de gêne : L'histoire d'Omer Marcoux, violoneux et sculpteur
Une histoire de la vie artistique et communautaire d'un homme franco-américain de New Hampshire. Racontée par lui-même, M. Marcoux - bûcheron, sculpteur, musicien, ami - comme vu dans les contes qui se présentent dans ses entrevues avec l'écrivain du texte. 10 chapitres, illustrée par photos et dessins en noir et blanc. Traductions de quelques phrases idiomatiques. -
Little Pine to King Spruce : A Franco-American Childhood
Memoirs of Fran Pelletier. His family and his youth in rural Maine. Growing up in small town America. From the back cover: "Fran Pelletier is a rare and wonderful storyteller. He Grew up in Milford, Maine, in the 1930s....Pelletier remembers all the details in a series of stories that beg to be read aloud and shared. Authentically small-town American, yet spiced by his French-Canadian heritage, these stories will resonate in communities throughout New England." -
Inside Peyton Place : The Life of Grace Metalious
Biography of Manchester, New Hampshire author Grace Metalious. Famous for her novel "Peyton Place" and its various film adaptations. Emily Toth is also the biographer of novelist Kate Chopin.
From University Press of Mississippi: "The juicy biography of the scandalous novelist who lifted the lid off a New England town...Grace Metalious, an unpretentious housewife from the wrong side of the tracks, had written an explosive bestseller. From a ramshackle cottage in a small New England milltown, she zoomed to national stardom. She met movie stars, famous writers, and the hangers-on who gravitate to those who achieve sudden wealth. She partied with the glamorous; she traveled; always a generous friend, she entertained lavishly. It was a Cinderella dream. But it did not last....Grace refused to be confined by the fifties' notions of a woman's place. In her struggle to find herself, she lifted the lid off sex and violence, power and powerlessness, truth and hypocrisy, and became known as the Pandora in Blue Jeans. 'If I'm a lousy writer,' she said, 'then an awful lot of people have got lousy taste.'...Emily Toth has given us a complete and sympathetic portrait of Grace: the idealistic young scribbler, the partier, the sometimes reluctant wife and mother. Tracing the television shows, the films, the Peyton Place sequels and later novels, Toth shows Grace plagued by periods of self-doubt and loneliness, striving desperately and feeling pressured to create another 'hit.'"
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Before All Dignity Is Lost : The Living and Dying of an AIDS Victim
The life of a young man after graduating college, his battle with AIDS, and his friendship with a mentor and former professor, Norman Beaupré, as read through a chronological series of personal letters. From the author's website: "What would you do if you suddenly discovered you had AIDS? What would you think? 'Before All Dignity Is Lost' is the epistolary story of a young man who suffers through the ignominy of AIDS and dies from it at age 34. This is a true story based on real letters." -
Crossing the Divide : Representations of Deafness in Biography
An exploration of the lives and texts of three francophone biographers, each struggling in her own way through the difficulties of deafness. Includes a segment on Franco American author Corinne Rocheleau-Rouleau. From Gallaudet University Press: "This remarkable volume examines the process by which three deaf, French biographers from the 19th and 20th centuries attempted to cross the cultural divide between deaf and hearing worlds through their work. The very different approach taken by each writer sheds light on determining at what point an individual's assimilation into society endangers his or her sense of personal identity." -
Up from Maple Street
Memoirs of a Vermont teacher. The story of his French Canadian family living in St. Johnsbury, Vermont in the middle twentieth century. From Ecko House Publishing: "This book tells of a French Canadian family rising out of poverty and achieving the American Dream. The setting is St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Felix, the Dad, is a hot dog vendor on the hilly streets while Mom is a stay at home mom raising eight children. The American Dream is reached through hard work, perseverance and especially education. Part of the book deals with interesting anecdotes at various schools in Vermont in which the author spent 36 years as a teacher and school administrator." -
The Bridging of Two Cultures
Subtitled, "How One Family of French Canadian Descent, Without Compromising Its Heritage, Learned to Live and Cope in the Border Village of Derby Line, Vermont in the First Half of the Twentieth Century." Biography of the Morin family of Derby Line. Descriptions of a rural American community and the family's negotiation of it with a cultural strength partly unfamiliar to their surroundings. -
Lewis Barttro : A Vermont Franco-American in the Civil War, Born Louis Berthiaume
Brief biography of a French Canadian who fought in the American Civil War as a volunteer from Richmond, Vermont. Concludes with a brief ancestry of his family extending into 17th century France, as well as a list of his descendants now dispersed across the United States. -
Vows : The Story of a Priest, a Nun, and Their Son
The biography of a Catholic nun and a Catholic priest in Boston, Massachusetts - their work and their faith, their marriage and their family - written by their son. Moves through the author's youth and his own unique relationship with faith and doctrine. An intimate and intimately-told story of religion in America, especially Catholicism, during and after the social upheavel of the middle twentieth century. From Free Press: "'Vows' is a compelling story of one family's unshakable faith that to be called is to serve, however high the cost may be. Peter Manseau's riveting evocation of his parents' parallel childhoods, their similar callings, their experiences in the seminary and convent, and how they met while tending to the homeless of Roxbury, Massachusetts, during the riot-prone 1960s is a page-turning meditation on the effect that love can have on profound faith." -
Priest: A Tale of Repressed Identity: How I Became a Catholic Priest
Autobiography of a New Hampshire man and his "search for personal identity" through ethnicity and religion, in and out of the lifestyle of a Roman Catholic Priest. From the back cover: "Maurice Fillion was five when his father died. Singled out by priests and nuns while in grade school as a promising candidate for the Catholic priesthood, he entered a minor seminary at age 13, then moved into a religious novitiate and on to a major seminary. By the time he was ordained a priest at 25 he had spent half his life in cloistered living, segregated from the outside world..." -
Kerouac: A Biography
Seminal biography of native of Lowell, Massachusetts, Franco American, novelist, and poet, Jack Kerouac. Republished in 1994. Written by Ann Charters, who worked with Kerouac during the final three years of his life. In her writing of this book, Charters was assisted by Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and other contemporary artists close to Kerouac and essential to the Beat Movement in art, literature, and broader Americana. -
Le Bon Pière Zénon (1870-1940)
La biographie de Monseigneur Arthur Décary, dit le Révérend Pière Zénon Décary: un prêtre qui a servi les églises catholique romain du Maine. ècrite comme hagiographie moderne, avec l'attestation populaire dans lettres publiques pour sa sainteté, ainsi que quelques descriptions de certains miracles. -
The Cows Are Out!: Two Decades on a Maine Dairy Farm
From Islandport Press: "Family dairy farms are disappearing in Maine and with them, a way of life. Trudy Chambers Price has captured the daily joys and struggles of the family farm in a way that ensures this Maine way of life will not be forgotten....Price and her husband raised two sons and hundreds of cows on Craneland Farm in Central Maine. The work was never-ending and exhausting, but also exhilarating and rewarding. In this bittersweet memoir of two decades of dairy farming, Chambers writes of the daily trials of haying, cow breeding and milking against a backdrop of gentle and entertaining rural life. She introduces kind neighbors, eccentric neighbors, visiting city folk and loveable pets. 'The Cows Are Out!' is a tribute to hard-working family farmers and to an important part of Maine's historical and cultural heritage." -
Unveiling Kate Chopin
Biography of the author of "The Awakening." From University Press of Mississippi: "In 'Unveiling Kate Chopin,' Emily Toth, the foremost authority on Chopin's life and works, creates a sharply revealing portrait of a modern woman in a Victorian world. Born in St. Louis in 1850, Kate O'Flaherty was raised by wealthy, feisty widows and educated by brilliant nuns. She endured a mysterious 'outrage' committed against her by Union soldiers in her teens and suffered what moderns now call a 'loss of voice.' But she survived to become a lively, dangerously clever social observer." -
Jim : L'histoire de Jim Caron jeune homme, racontée par lui-même (à 101 ans) (texte et audio)
L'histoire de Jim Caron, 101 ans, tel que raconté à Milton, New Hampshire, et rédigé par Julien Olivier. Sa famille, son travail dans les bois et dans le moulin, son école, and sa vie apriès son immigration aux Etats-Unis. Du texte: "Jim Caron m'a raconté son histoire par un jour bien froid et ensoleillé, dans la maison en campagne ou il vit depuis deux ans. Avant ca, it habitait seul, dans un petit chambre à Somersworth, New Hampshire. Maintenant, à Milton, encore au New Hampshire, il demeure avec une famille qui l'a adopté comme leur pé-pière: la mière, le pière, leurs deux fils et la petite fille que Jim aime tout, un chat et les animaux dans la grange....Il est content avec eux....C'était le 21 janvier 1977. Jim avait cent et un ans et quinze jours..."Tags Augusta ME, Berwick ME, Dover NH, Emigration and Immigration, Family, Labor History, Lake Winnipesaukee NH, Language and Linguistics, Manchester NH, Merrimack River Valley, Mills and Mill Work, NMDC, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Rochester NH, Somersworth NH, Waterville ME, Youth -
L'enclume et le couteau : The Life and Work of Adelard Coté, Folk Artist
Biography of Adelard Coté, Southern Maine artist and sculptor of wood. Includes pictures of his art, interviews, and a critical observation of his work as a part of Franco-American folklore. Also includes a brief history of French-Canadian immigration to Biddeford, Maine. -
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Tom Plant : The Making of a Franco-American Entrepreneur, 1859-1941
Critical biography of Tom Plant, leader in the shoe industry of New England near the turn of the twentieth century, situated in the Bath, Maine, area. Refutes and diversifies the stereotypical notion of the French Canadian immigrant worker experience in New England. Introduction written by Jacques Ferland, University of Maine Professor of History. -
As Luck Would Have It
The autobiography of a northern Maine native. Begins with his early life in Aroostook County and continues through his many years of service in the United States Army, bringing him and his family throughout the world - Ethiopia, Iran, and elsewhere - for most of his adult life. -
Destination Madawaska : Biographie de Charles Terrieau, pionnier acadien
From the author: "The book is a biography of Charles Theriault, first francophone settler in 1821-1823 of the lower Madawaska River in present-day St-Jacques. The book presents a brief history of the Acadian migration before the time of Charles' trail-blazing in the wilderness of the Madawaska territory. The territory at that time was a no-man's land' that included much of northern Maine from Houlton and all of Madawaska county and parts of Victoria and Restigouche counties of northwestern New Brunswick. At that time, the territory was claimed by the United States as being part of the new state of Maine and was also claimed by England as being part of the new colony of New Brunswick. The dispute was settled by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 which chose the St-John River as the international boundary separating the United States and New Brunswick. The book presents the genealogy of the greater Thériault family in the St-John Valley showing that the population of all Thériaults until 1900 came from three branches of the Acadian family; one which migrated from the lower St-John to St-Basile around 1790 and two branches which had migrated from Acadia to Kamouraska, QC in 1759 and later migrated to the various Madawaska settlements between 1820 and 1860." -
Prairie Roses : La Petite Soeur Tells About Her Family
Memoirs spanning the period from 1901 to 1945, focusing on stories of the author's family throughout the midwestern United States during that period. -
My Life on the Line : Recollections of a Childhood Spent in the Maine-New Brunswick Border Country during the Great Depression
Memoirs of a Northern Maine woman growing up during the Great Depression, with family straddling the rural and agrarian borderland of Maine and New Brunswick. Memories of her great-grandmother and extended family from working on a New Brunswick farm in the summers of her youth. The tensions between her French Canadian Catholicism and the Presbyterianism of her New Brunswick relatives. Memories of her family and life in Island Falls, Maine. Parts of her search for her French lineage. Illustrated in black and white photograph. -
As I Live and Dream
Autobiographical collection of essays that chronicle a Franco American's family life in western Maine in the first half of the twentieth century. Includes one chapter on the history of Rumford, Maine. -
Little Canuck : The Adventures of an Immigrant Boy from Québec
Self-published memoir about life in Québec, and life after Québec. From iUniverse: "Michel learns that his father is dying. This news precipitates a nostalgic journey into the past-a childhood spent on a dairy farm in French Québec. As a sensitive boy secluded from the world, Michel wavers between forbidden exploits and heartbreaking tribulations. Catholic school is a culture shock, but it's the huge pumpkin-shaped teacher with a bad temper who terrorizes his brain most. On the farm, his young life abounds with fun and danger-mad bulls, dynamite sticks, runaway darts, lethal ice cubes, and hazardous farm equipment. After struggling with a dismal economy, his family is forced to abandon their home. They desert their isolated farmhouse and move into a cockroach-infested apartment in an English-speaking city one mile from the seductive United States border. There, Michel copes with bullies, Russian spies, and ghosts. 'Little Canuck' recounts the humorous, and at times, heartrending memoirs of a young boy on his journey through a colorful landscape of emotion. Along the way, young Michel uncovers the mysteries of female anatomy, and learns poignant truths about mortality. His most profound lessons are not learned at school.
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I Had a Father: A Post-Modern Autobiography
From Library Journal: "This unusual memoir focuses on the author's attempt to understand his dead father. Blaise, a prize-winning novelist and director of the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, combines fragments of memories, mostly concerned with locations, as he circles around the story of his difficult, much-married father, a French Canadian/American traveling salesman." -
Jack Kérouac : Essai-Poulet / A Chicken Essay
Un livre comme essai sur les rélations entre la vie et la littérature de Jack Kerouac - son écriture et son héritage - avec des réactions de l'auteur. -
Use My Name: Jack Kerouac's Forgotten Families
From ECW Press: "With this fascinating new book, Jim Jones debunks many of the myths surrounding the life and times of Jack Kerouac. Jones concentrates on those whose lives were most affected by Kerouac: daughter Jan Kerouac, wives Edie Parker, Joan Haverty, and Stella Sampas, as well as nephew Paul Blake Jr. 'Use My Name: Jack Kerouac's Forgotten Families' takes its title from advice given to Jan during her second and final meeting with Jack, who encouraged her to profit from the surname she shared with the famous author of 'On the Road.' Sadly, not one of these individuals so closely tied to Kerouac seems to have benefited from the connection, as Jones discovers in his in-depth interview with Jan. She discusses at length her 15 months as a prostitute, her own divorces, her hospitalization, and her life as an author, including a wild European book tour for [her novel] 'Baby Driver.' Although Kerouac is one of the most 'biographied' American writers of our time, Jones offers a new perspective on the King of the Beats and his generation, one in which formerly marginalized figures in the Kerouac storyparticularly womenbecome strong, central characters. He also exposes the cut-throat wheeling and dealing that has plagued the Kerouac estate and that continues today as the various players do battle over the legacy of one of the counterculture's biggest idols." -
Visions of Kerouac
Biography of Jack Kerouac published in his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts.
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It Stops with Me : Memoir of a Canuck Girl
From Touch Art Books: "This story with its bold contrasts of good and bad, love and hate, inextricably connected, is situated in the context of the bigger history of French Canadian and Indian people amid mainstream American culture from the mid 1950s to the edge of the 21st century....Touchette’s story is rooted deep in the past in her parents', grandparents', and great-grandparents' experiences. Rooted in a changing, dying culture, and a community with a complex history, her mixed heritage held good and bad. With coal black eyes, Indian hair, French language, and woman-centered culture, she inherited a legacy of oppression and denial overshadowed by the powerful influence of the Catholic Church. But Touchette chose a different legacy for her children and the seven generations to follow that connected her to 5000 years of Jewish traditions, and milleniums of Native American spirituality." Also from Touch Art Books: "A visionary American painter examines an eventful life that spans fifty years, several cultures -- French Canadian, Indian and Jewish, and diverse places -- from Wellesley College, New York's Lower East Side, and Soho, to Indian Country, Navajo Nation and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Stories of families -- their agony and blessings, shame and pride, destruction and creation -- with brilliant illustrations, demonstrate the depth and resiliency of the human spirit, and make the personal, universal. Original." -
Wednesday's Child
Memoir of a Franco-American woman who grew up "down the Plains" in Waterville, Maine. Winner of the 1997 Maine Chapbook Award.
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American Ghosts
A memoir from prose writer David Plante. An exploration of identity with respect to language, the power of Catholic traditions, and the pull of sex, moving with the author from his Providence, Rhode Island, hometown through Europe and back again. From Publishers Weekly: "Haunted by the visible and invisible spirits of his life, Plante embarks on a remarkable journey of self-discovery. Traveling through a past littered with the ghosts of his ethnic lineage (French Canadian), his family heritage, his sexuality and his writing life, he searches to make sense of his spiritual longings and his physical desires." -
Growing Up On Academy Hill: Remembering My French-Canadian-American Papa
Biography of a father from his daughter's point of view, set in the context of Old Town, Maine, in the first half of the 20th century. From the author: "'Growing Up On Academy Hill' honors [King's] father who encouraged all six of his children to finish high school, a not-so-common achievement for those hard times. Recalling his ideology Annette wrote: 'My father was born with an inexhaustible desire to feel the earth passing through his fingers, to smell newly plowed fields warmed by sunlight. Every spring he pointed joyfully to new beginnings, and with enthusiasm taught us the basics of all beauty. From one corner of a small piece of land to the other, we observed as children, life through his eyes.' A brother's thoughts: 'We were not from a very touchy-feely" kind of family. However, our parents were not unloving, it was simply an unspoken love that was shared. I never heard Papa say, "I love you" to my mother, my sisters, or me. I never saw Papa kiss Mama. Yet the feeling of love was pervasive when I was a child.'" -
A Place Called Spruce Knoll
A book of short, autobiographical stories from a native of Old Town, Maine, and a resident of Gouldsboro. The subjects of her stories take a lot of their value from the author's longtime and current home, "Spruce Knoll." Paradis King is also the author of the memoir, "Growing Up On Academy Hill" (2002). -
The Girl from Peyton Place: A Biography of Grace Metalious
A biography of the New Hampshire author, Grace Metalious, whose works include "Peyton Place," "The Tight White Collar," and "No Adam in Eden."
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Among My Souvenirs
Memoirs of a priest from the St. John River Valley, Maine and New Brunswick, who was born in the first decade of the 20th century and spent most of his late life preaching in the Roman Catholic parishes of northern Maine.Tags Alberta, Allagash ME, Baker Lake ME, Bangor ME, Calais ME, Chisholm ME, Community: Customs and Social Life, Ellsworth ME, Emigration and Immigration, Exploration and Colonization, Family, Farming and Agriculture, Fort Fairfield ME, Fort Kent ME, Frenchville ME, Grand Isle ME, Greenville ME, Limestone ME, Lincoln ME, Livermore ME, Madawaska ME, Maine, Michigan, Millinocket ME, Minnesota, Native Americans, New Brunswick, North Dakota, Oquossoc ME, Orono ME, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Presque Isle ME, Québec, Rangeley ME, Religion, Rockwood ME, Rumford ME, Saskatchewan, St. Francis ME, St. Lawrence River Valley, St. Zacharie ME, Stratton ME, Wallagrass ME, Youth -
"Wednesday's Child" : Excerpts
Some selections from Waterville, Maine, native Rhea Coêté Robbins's memoir, "Wednesday's Child." -
La femme francophone aux États-Unis
Les actes du 16e congreès biennal de la Fédération Féminine Franco-Américaine de la Nouvelle-Angleterre tenu au College Rivier, Nashua, New Hampshire les 27, 28 et 29 avril 1984. Constituent égalemente le Bulletin de la Fédération Féminine Franco-Américaine, volumes xxxii, nos 3-4, été-automne 1984 et xxxiii, nos 1-2, hiver-printemps 1985. Présentations sur les femmes et la langue française, la littérature, le travail, la famille, et des autres sujets. Une série de témoignages personnels et autobiographiques. Divisé en quatre ateliers, avec des présentations supplémentaires. Contient le texte suivant: "Alice Lemieux-Lévesque: mendiante de l'amour," Claire Quintal "Présentation générale du Dr. Ellen Munley," Ellen Munley "Par ou commencer: le role de la meère comme éducatrice de la langue française," Yolande Petit Pétrin, Héleène Jeknavorian, Monique Letendre "Activités pour le développement du français au niveau pre-scolaire" "Témoinage de Paula Hollingworth Babin," Paula Hollingworth Babin "Témoinage de Mme Marcelle Arvantely," Marcelle Arvantely "L'informatique au service de l'enseignement du français," Charles Mitchell, avec Soeur Marthe Villeneuve, p.m., Georgette Pinette Barry, Louise Rondeau, et Denise Bérubé "La femme francophone dans le secteur professionnel," Léona Fournier Michaud, Louise Champigny Soltys "Témoinage de Charlotte LeBlanc," Charlotte LeBlanc "Témoinage d'Elaine L'Heureux Uzan," Elaine L'Heureux Uzan "Témoinage d'Irene Simoneau," Irene Simoneau "La femme dans les lettres françaises, québécoises, et franco-américaines," par Bernadette Bénard "Le rôle de la femme dans les romans d'André Malraux," Danielle Blais "Gabrielle Roy," Nelly Milet Mitchell "Corinne Rocheleau-Rouleau," Béatrice Belisle MacQueen (et Yvonne Gallant Martel) "Réflections sur la condition féminine," Denise LeBlanc-Bantey "Eloge de Ninette Fortin," Georgette Jean "Eloge de Marie-Reine Mikesell," Oda Beaulieu "Homélie du peère Paul Demers à l'occasion du seizieème congreès de la Fédération Féminine Franco-Américaine," Freère Paul R. Demers, s.c. -
Oral Tradition : New England and French Canada
Paper outlining a proposed bibliography of New England French folklore. Describes an inventory of materials on New England French popular tradition - folklore, folk song, legend - being collected and cataloged at the Archives de Folklore, l'Université Laval, in Québec City. Certain examples of New England French Canadian and Franco American folklore, its themes and content; its researchers; and some accessible sources. Concludes with a chart comparing the different types of folklore found in each New England state, New England generally, Mississippi, Michigan, and Louisiana, as well as Ontario, Québec, and Acadia.
Presented 5/2/1972 at a conference entitled,"The French in New England, Acadia, and Quebec," and also included in the full conference proceedings published under the same name. -
The French in New England, Acadia, and Quebec : Proceedings of a Conference sponsored by the New England-Atlantic Provinces-Quebec Center at the University of Maine, Orono, May 1 and 2, 1972.
Proceedings of a 1972 conference at the University of Maine on the subject of French culture in the northeastern borderlands of Maine and Canada. Contents include transcripts of the following presentations: "The Loyalists and the Acadians" "Le Centre d'Etudes Acadiennes de l'Universite de Moncton" "Acadian Research and the Public Archives of Canada" "Acadian Research in New England Archives and Libraries: A Student Viewpoint - the 17th Century" "Acadian Research in New England Archives and Libraries: A Student Viewpoint - the Acadians in Massachusetts" "The French Fact in the Atlantic Area" "The French Migration from Quebec to New England" "Quebec Society and the American Proximity in the Twentieth Century" "Oral Tradition: New England and French Canada" "Massachusetts American and Canadian French Exchange Commission" "The Franco-American Institute - Saint Francis College, Biddeford, Maine" "Franco-American Student Affairs at the University of Maine at Orono" "The Franco-American To-day: The St. John Valley" "Bilingual Education Programs" -
Dictionary of American Regional English
Dictionary of American vernacular English as pronounced and heard in various segments of the United States. Now in 4 volumes. From Belknap Press: "'The Dictionary of Regional English (DARE)" is a multi-volume reference work that documents words, phrases, and pronunciations that vary from one place to another across the United States. DARE is based on face-to-face interviews carried out in all 50 states between 1965 and 1970 and on a comprehensive collection of written materials (diaries, letters, novels, newspapers, histories, biographies, government documents, etc.) that cover our history from the colonial period to the present. The entries in DARE include regional pronunciations, variant forms, some etymologies, and regional and social distributions of the words and phrases."
from Volume I of the text:
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An Elaborate History and Genealogy of the Ballous in America
Subtitled: "Carefully Compiled and Edited by Adin Ballou; with Numerous Artistic Illustrations." Massive family history of the Ballou family of Rhode Island. Written at the end of the 19th century. -
Transplanting Traditions: The Pellerin Sisters Share Perspectives on the Experience of Preserving Their French Canadian Heritage
Article compiled from oral history interviews with two sisters of the Pellerin family in Highgate, Vermont. Featured in the Vermont Folklife Center's annual publication, "Visit'n." -
The Greener Pastures of the Green Mountain State: John Louis Rainville Recalls Growing up on a Border-Area Farm in Northern Vermont
Article compiled from an oral history interview with a resident of the town of Highgate, Vermont, situated in a rural part of the state near to the US border with Canada. Featured in the Vermont Folklife Center's annual publication, "Visit'n." -
Contras, Squares & Rounds : Fiddling the Night Away at Local Dances
Article compiled from oral history interviews of Vermont musicians in the twentieth century. Featured in the Vermont Folklife Center's annual publication, "Visit'n." From the Vermont Historical Society: "Includes reminisces by Franco-American fiddler Camile Dubois, Wallace Coburn talking about fiddler Alfred 'Crazy' Chase, and musician Harold Luce."Tags Community: Customs and Social Life, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Folklore, Music, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Documentary, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Performing Arts, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Social History, Vermont -
"I Learned Things Today That I Never Knew Before": Oral History at the Kitchen Table
Historiographical essay on the dearth and fragmentation of source material relevant to working class Franco Americans - especially Franco American women. Considers the published reality that is "la survivance" in relation to the lived realities of working-class Americans in the twentieth century. Arguing that oral history is unique in its ability to stand for identities that have been largely overlooked, the author conducts interviews with second-generation Franco American women in order, as she says, "to recover a history that conventional sources find difficult to access."Tags Community: Customs and Social Life, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Frenchtown ME, Gender and Sexuality, Gorham ME, Government and Politics, Labor History, Maine, Mills and Mill Work, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Religion, Social History, Westbrook ME -
L'identité franco-américaine : tendances actuelles dans le sud de la Nouvelle-Angleterre
De Fox, Fortin, Martin, et Stelling: "Le terme «franco-américain» s'emploie pour désigner les immigrants canadiens arrivés au nord-est des États-Unis pendant une période s'étalant de 1840 à 1930. Catholiques et francophones, ils y ont établi des communautés resserrées et un réseau d'institutions religieuses, scolaires et sociales afin de maintenir leur religion, leur langue, et leur mode de vie traditionnel. Cependant, l'évolution rapide qu'a connue ce groupe depuis les soixante derniières années a déclenché un débat sur sa définition : comment les Franco-Américains se caractérisent-ils actuellement? Partagent-ils encore une identité commune? La présente étude cherche à contribuer à la discussion en se servant de témoignages oraux provenant d'entretiens sociolinguistiques réalisés aupriès de 130 habitants de quatre villes: Woonsocket (Rhode Island), Southbridge et Gardner (Massachussetts) et Bristol (Connecticut). Deux analyses quantitatives de ces données nous permettent d'obtenir une vue d'ensemble de la question identitaire. Puis, nous nous penchons sur les particularités de chaque communauté dans une série d'analyses qualitatives. La synthièse de ces différentes analyses nous permet de constater que les quatre communautés connaissent un processus d'assimilation dont le rythme et les caractéristiques diffièrent considérablement d'une communauté à l'autre. Même si un grand nombre d'entre-eux utilisent toujours l'étiquette franco-américaine pour se décrire, les Franco-Américains se limitent désormais à une conception identitaire qui évolue au sein de leur propre communauté sans référence à une culture supra-communautaire." -
On Maintaining a Francophone Identity in Cohoes, NY
From the author: "One third of the population of Cohoes, New York, is descended from French-Canadians who immigrated to the northeastern United States between 1840 and 1930. Since the end of immigration, the close-knit community centered on the French parish has undergone profound changes and French has ceased to be the language of everyday communication among its members. This paper describes the characteristic behaviors and attitudes which set the remaining Cohoes French speakers off as a group from other minority language communities and help them maintain their francophone identity."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Cohoes NY, Community: Customs and Social Life, Demography, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Hudson River Valley, Language and Linguistics, Mohawk River Valley, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Language and Linguistics, Personal History: Biography and Oral History -
Disobedient Ancestors
Personal and historical essay weaving a son's reflections on his Québec-born, rebellious, itinerant father through the changing shape of Catholicism in New France, Lower Canada, and Québec into the 21st century. The persistent grip of a longtime North American family's roots. His father's formative youth and later hatred of clergy, their tenuous relationship, the power of cultural narrative, and the shapes that one's departing quests from them can take. -
A Translator's Journey : A Retrospective
Personal observations of a Franco American author and psychotherapist on his French-to-English translation of "Body Psychotherapy: History, Concepts, and Methods" by Michael Heller. Confronting the prospect of a translation project; reencountering the "long dormant French language" of his youth; configuring and reacquainting his body to speaking in French. -
The Search for Generational Memory
Essay describing the popularity of American search efforts for "generational memory" - or the shape of one's personal and social origins - through genealogy, oral history, and the new social history movement of the middle twentieth century. Uses the example of Alex Haley's 1976 book, "Roots," as an influence on such popular efforts, and an instance of American historical and cultural identity-searching whose precedents can be traced to the beginning of the twentieth century. Exposition on the craft of oral history and the type of knowledge it generates. Written by the author of "Amoskeag: Life and Work in an American Factory-City" (1978), which focuses on the Amoskeag Mills of Manchester, New Hampshire and its workers. -
A Parish Grows Around the Common : Notre-Dame-des-Canadiens, 1869-1995
History of the Roman Catholic parish of Notre-Dame-des-Canadiens (what became "Notre Dame/St. Joseph Parish") in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1869 to 1995. Presented chronologically according to the lives and service of parish pastors and the achievements of their parishioners. The role of this parish in Worcester, and its development intertwined with the change and growth of the city. Emphasis on the parish's Franco American community - its parish laity and leadership. Includes lists of pastors, associate pastors, and their terms of service at Notre-Dame-des-Canadiens; pastors and terms of services at St. Joseph, Holy Name of Jesus, and St. Anthony parishes; choir directors, organists, and concerts from 1869 to 1995. -
Working People in the Post-Industrial Age, 1961-Present
Article featuring selections of oral history interviews conducted with Rhode Island working people in the 1980s. Reflections on childhood in urban, industrial Rhode Island in the wake of industrial closures, changing demographic landscapes, and their impact on the state's collective identity. Stories of mill work in Pawtucket, the Narragansett Brewery, labor negotiations, the women's movement, and other social reform movements in Rhode Island in the 1960s and 1970s. Featured in Part Two of a Rhode Island History series entitled, "Working Lives: An Oral History of Rhode Island Labor."Tags Albion RI, Blackstone Valley RI, Central Falls RI, Emigration and Immigration, Gender and Sexuality, Government and Politics, Manville RI, Mills and Mill Work, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Pawtucket RI, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Rhode Island, Social History, United States, Youth -
Don't Give Me No Lip : The Cultural and Religious Roots of Leo Durocher's Competitiveness
Infamous early 20th-century Major League Baseball player and manager, Leo Durocher, explored through the lens of his French Canadian Catholicism. How his various on- and off-field antics compare to his sociocultural situation on the margins of New York City immigrant Catholicism. His early support for Jackie Robinson and his later bigotry relative to popular knowledge about sportsmanship and integration during that time period. The West Springfield, Massachusetts native Durocher's unique competitive spirit in reflection of his cultural and religious roots. -
A New Order of Things : How the Textile Industry Transformed New England
General history of the textile industry and its workers in the towns and cities of New England. From early domestic and small-scale manufacturing in the 17th and 18th centuries, to weaving industries of the early 19th, to the massive riverside brick mill structures and labor forces that persisted into the later 20th century. Contains scholarship, oral histories, and many illustrations in painting and photograph of industrial-era settings, workers, and their manufacturing equipment. Written by former director of the American Textile History Museum and the Maine State Museum.Tags Alna ME, Andover MA, Androscoggin River Valley, Augusta ME, Berlin NH, Billerica MA, Blackstone River Valley, Braintree MA, Brunswick ME, Business and Economics, Chelmsford MA, Clinton MA, Dedham MA, Dover NH, Dracut MA, Dudley MA, Emigration and Immigration, England, Fall River MA, Gardiner ME, Gonic NH, Hallowell ME, Harrisville NH, Holden MA, Holyoke MA, Irish Americans, Kingston NH, Labor History, Laconia NH, Lawrence MA, Lewiston ME, Lincoln RI, Londonderry NH, Lovell ME, Lowell MA, Ludlow MA, Maine, Manchester NH, Manville RI, Massachusetts, Merrimack River Valley, Middlefield NY, Mills and Mill Work, Nashua NH, New Bedford MA, New England, Newburyport MA, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Pawtucket RI, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Portsmouth NH, Providence RI, Quequechan River Valley, Rhode Island, Rockville CT, Rowley MA, Saco ME, Salem MA, Salem NH, Sanford ME, Slatersville RI, Somersworth NH, South Waterford ME, Springvale ME, St. John River Valley, Taunton MA, Ware MA, Warren RI, Webster MA, Winthrop ME, Worcester MA, Yarmouth ME, York ME -
I Have Words to Spend : Reflections of a Small-Town Editor
Book-length collection of 85 selected newspaper columns and magazine pieces written by famed author Robert Cormier of Leominster, Massachusetts, published between 1951 and 1980. Writings featured in this text were printed in the "Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise"of Fitchburg, Massachusetts; the "St. Anthony Messenger"; or the "Worcester Telegram" of Worcester, Massachusetts. Writings on various topics, including some reflections on the writer's youth in Depression-era Leominster, in the neighborhood of French Hill. Divided into the following sections: Preface, by Constance Senay Cormier "I Have Words to Spend" Yesterday The Observer Home Away Follies and Fancies Movies, Books, and Others And So On... -
Historic Lewiston : Its Government
The third book in a series on the history of Lewiston, Maine, Historic Lewiston, from the Lewiston Historical Commission. Historic Lewiston: Its Government is a 3-part, 53-page overview of Lewiston's town and city government from incorporation, to establishment as city, to 1980. Outlines past and present structures of Lewiston's municipal government. Describes the construction of the city building. Part 3, the book's longest section, provides brief biographical profiles of each of Lewiston's mayors from 1863 to 1980. Illustrated with photographs of buildings and persons. Contents: Chapter 1 Town Government Early City Government The "New" Charter Attempts to Revise the Charter The Present System of Government Chapter 2 Construction of City Building Chapter 3 Mayors of Lewiston -
The Intellectual of the Québec Diaspora : The Case of Henri d'Arles
Article on the changing roles of North American francophone intellectuals in New England in the 1920s and 1930s: from clerics and political leaders at home in Québec, to an attachment to the United States and a process of cultural conservation abroad. Profile of Québec writer, Henri d'Arles, and the movement of his nationalist interests from literary francophone Canada and France to the certain cultural and religious plights involving French Canadian expatriates in New England. How American cultural pluralism, political events, and the Sentinelliste movement, in particular, informed d'Arles's relationship with the United States and reframed his cultural and political purposes.Tags Derry NH, Emigration and Immigration, Fall River MA, Fiction and Literature, France, Goffstown NH, Lewiston ME, Manchester NH, New England, New Hampshire, New York NY, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History, Nonfiction -- History -- Intellectual, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Religion, Somersworth NH, Suncook NH, Woonsocket RI -
« De votre chière soeur qui ne vous oublie jamais » : A Postal Perspective on French-Canadian Migration in North America
Essay on the function of the personal letter in historiography. How trails of correspondence between French Canadians in Canada and the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries tell us about French Canadian migration: migrants, immigrants, families separated by distance and labor, and the sort of information that was communicated by post. The relationship of letter-writing to French Canadian literacy in that period. Contains analyses of certain private correspondences among French Canadian migrants, their families, and friends - the majority of which exisiting between Québec and New England cities.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Bay City MI, Biddeford ME, Boston MA, Burlington VT, Cambridge MA, Cleveland OH, Cohoes NY, Douglas MA, Emigration and Immigration, Fall River MA, Family, Gardner MA, Haverhill MA, Lewiston ME, Lisbon ME, Louisiana, Manchester NH, Mauchburg MA, New England, New York, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Historiography, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Providence RI, Québec, Rutland VT, Salem MA, Sheldon Springs VT, Skowhegan ME, Southbridge MA, St. Albans VT, St. Paul MN, Suncook NH, Swanton VT, US Midwest, US Southwest, Wisconsin -
Langue et identité dans le Québec du XIXe siiècle : une écriture triangulaire
Une analyse de 44 lettres échangées en 1880 par des membres d'une famille à travers la frontiière entre les États-Unis et Canada - de la ville de Montréal aux mines de Leadville, Colorado. Quelques explications sur les notions de la famille, la religion, la langue, et le travail, telles qu'elles apparaissent dans les lettres étudiées. Une briève analyse de la grammaire et l'usage comme on le voit dans le contexte de chaque lettre. -
« Gardons contact » : l'expérience épistolaire de Jean-Henri et de Maxime-Ovila Freniière en Nouvelle-Angleterre, 1912-1929
Une exploration de la correspondance par lettre d'un pière à son fils au début du XXe siiècle, entre deux villes de la Nouvelle-Angleterre - Rutland, Vermont et Springfield, Massachusetts. L'étude d'une correspondance privée afin de mieux comprendre l'expérience complexe de migration canadienne-française ù elle concernait le travail, la famille, et l'individu dans le début du XXe siiècle. -
L'exil américain de Louis Dantin : un intellectual au carrefour des cultures
Un essai qui examine des lettres sélectionnées d'un intellectuel et un écrivain québécois aux États-Unis au début du XXe siiècle - Louis Dantin - et ses pairs canadien-français - Olivar Asselin, Rosaire Dion-Lévesque, et Alfred DesRochers. Le contenu de ses lettres comme un motif de réflexion sur une croissance de culture littéraire américaine entre Nouvelle-Angleterre et Québec. -
L'Étoile blanche
Le carnet de route d'une artiste qui a quitté son mari et ses enfants à Boston afin de voyager vers la France et l'Italie. "L'Étoile blanche" est le nom qu'elle donne au navire qu'elle prend à travers l'Atlantique. Comprend une partie de la poésie de l'artiste. -
Le Foyer Fortieth Anniversary Souvenir Book : 1936-1976
Historical anniversary portrait of Pawtucket and Central Falls, Rhode Island, Franco American fraternal organization, Le Foyer. Includes English transcripts of three significant speeches held at organization events; a section of facts about the group; and brief biographies of all past presidents. Presented in the following sections: Introduction 1939 Reception for French Consul -Speech by R. deBlois LaBrosse 1957 Past Presidents' Night -Speech by Louis H. Paquin 1976 Fortieth Anniversary Mass and Banquet -Speech by Henri Leblond Did You Know? Past Presidents' Biographies -
Worcester's Union Station : The Monument and the Memories
History of Worcester, Massachusett's Union Station. Its various shapes and transformations from its initial construction in 1875 and reconstruction in 1911, through its closure in 1964, to its 1999 restoration. The place of the station in French Canadian immigration, in the travels of World Wars I & II, and through the author's memoirs. How Union Station figures into the memories of other New Englanders, as presented in their own stories and writings. Statements from the staff of Preservation Worcester and the Worcester Redevelopment Authority. Illustrated heavily in black and white photograph, with one chapter devoted entirely to a pictorial history of Union Station.Tags Art and Architecture, Auburn MA, Bedford NH, Blackstone River Valley, Emigration and Immigration, Massachusetts, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Photography, Rhode Island, Travel and Movement, United States, War, Worcester MA -
The Lively Legacy of Blackie Langlais
Brief profile of Old Town, Maine native and recently deceased sculptor of Cushing, Maine, Bernard "Blackie" Langlais. Several photographs of his work, including one of the artist outside his home. -
The Fragrance of Rose : The Cult of Woonsocket's 'Saint' Endures Despite Official Doubt
Report on famed Woonsocket, Rhode Island woman of Catholic piety, Marie Rose Ferron, and the faith community that developed around her during her short life and after her death in 1936. The alleged stigmatist whose shrines continue to exist; whose cult of believers lingers after she was denied sainthood, and still long after evidence has been amounted against the legitimacy of her healing powers and stigmatic wounds. -
Lucky Yvon : How a starving Yosemite ironmonger became the King of Patagonia
Magazine feature on American climber, outdoors enthusiast, and entrepreneur, Yvon Chouinard, founder of the Patagonia company. Profile of Chouinard's climbing adventures, his company's successes, and the convergence of a love for the outdoors with a knack for business. How Patagonia has changed the climbing industry, and how a climber relates to the business world. Chouinard's image featured on magazine cover. -
Histoire et statistiques des Canadiens-Américains du Connecticut : Congreès nationaux, 1885-1898
Livre qui présente les "minutes des Conventions Nationales des Canadiens-Américains de l'état du Connecticut," enregistrées de 13 congreès nationaux entre 1885 et 1898. Divisées par année et par rencontre, ces minutes contiennent des discussions sur la naturalistion, la langue, la religion, l'education, et aussi que le groupe lui-même comme represantant "les colonies franco-canadiennes de l'Etat du Connecticut" (Préface). Livre publie un tableau de la démographie canadienne-française par ville dans le Connecticut à 1898. Montre aussi par intermittence des portraits et des biographies d'hommes d'affaires, des prêtres et autres personnes significatives de ces réunions et aux Franco-Américains de Connecicut à la fin du 19ième siiècle. Les hommes apparaissent dans l'ordre suivant: L'Honorable Hugo-A. Dubuque Docteur Omer Larue Rév. F.-X. Chagnon M. David-Adelphie Dolbec M. Eugeène Cartier M. David-Pierre Chabot M. Roch Quessy M. Joseph M. Baril M. Octave Lanouette M. Jules Baribault Rév. J.-E. Bourret M. Louis-Joseph Tétreault Docteur A.-D. David Docteur Charles-J. Leclaire M. H.-J. Reeves M. J.-B. Vallée Rév. Charles-Ferdinand Bédard Rév. Joseph-Ubalde-Jean Papillon M. Benjamin Bonin M. Louis-J. Perreault M. Louis-P. Lamoureux Docteur James-Fabien McIntosh M. Henri Paradis M. T.-A. Paradis Rév. J.-A.-N. Grenier M. William-S. Buteau M. Alexandre Commette Rév. J.-L. Desaulniers M. Rémi Marsan Rév. Joseph-Philippe Perreault Rév. Ulderic-Oscar Bellerose M. Philéas Dion Rév. Ernest Lamontagne Docteur Joseph-N. Bellemare Rév. J.-E. Senesac Docteur L.-O. Morasse M. Wilbrod L'Heureux M. Joseph-Octave Blanchette M. F.-X. Nobert M. David-P. Comtois Docteur Arthur-O. Baribault M. Joseph Lavigne Rév. J.-H. Chapdelaine M. Théodore Potvin M. Hormisdas Dion M. Alphonse Chagnon Docteur Charles-H. Girard M. Joseph Mullen M. Edmond-A. Parent M. N.-P. Forcier M. D.-P. Auclair M. J.-N. Bernier M. Lucien PratteTags Ansonia CT, Attawaugan CT, Avon CT, Ballouville CT, Baltic CT, Beacon Falls CT, Bennington VT, Bethel CT, Branford CT, Bridgeport CT, Bristol CT, Brooklyn CT, Business and Economics, Canton CT, Central Village CT, Centreville CT, Champlain NY, Clubs and Societies, Community: Customs and Social Life, Connecticut, Coventry CT, Cromwell CT, Danbury CT, Danielson CT, Danielsonville CT, Dayville CT, Demography, Derby CT, Eagleville CT, East Hartford CT, East Killingly CT, Elmville CT, Excelville CT, Fall River MA, Fishkill NY, Glasgo CT, Greeneville CT, Greenwich CT, Groton CT, Haddam CT, Hartford CT, Haverhill MA, Hazardville CT, Huntington CT, Jewett City CT, Journalism, Lowell MA, Manchester CT, Manchester NH, Mechanicsville CT, Meriden CT, Middletown CT, Milford CT, Montville CT, Moosup CT, Naugatuck CT, New Boston CT, New Britain CT, New England, New Hartford CT, New Haven CT, New London CT, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Clubs and Societies, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, North Grosvenordale CT, North Haven CT, North Windham CT, Norwalk CT, Norwich CT, Norwich Falls CT, Oneco CT, Palmer CT, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Pineville CT, Plainfield CT, Providence RI, Putnam CT, Québec, Quinebaug CT, Religion, Seymour CT, Shelton CT, Somers CT, South Coventry CT, Southington CT, Sprague CT, Stafford CT, Stafford Springs CT, Stamford CT, Sterling CT, Stonington CT, Taftville CT, Thompsonville CT, Torrington CT, Versailles CT, Voluntown CT, Wallingford CT, Waterbury CT, Waterville CT, Wauregan CT, Westfield MA, Williamsville CT, Willimantic CT, Windsor Locks CT, Windsor Mills CT, Winsted CT -
Hier et aujourd'hui : 75eème anniversaire, Société St. Jean-Baptiste de Bienfaisance de N.Y., 1850-1925
Historique de la Société St. Jean-Baptiste de Bienfaisance de New York City depuis sa fondation à 1850, publiée dans la célébration de son 75e anniversaire. Des événements majeurs impliquant la société à New York et ailleurs. Liste et photos des "dignitaires de la société de 1850 à 1925," et beaucoup des portraits et biographies de ces hommes significatifs. Une lettre de félicitations du premier ministre du Québec. Publicités imprimées de la page 103 à 136. Ecrites et compilée par le secrétaire / archiviste de la société.Tags Biddeford ME, Canada, Chicago IL, Cohoes NY, Community: Customs and Social Life, Detroit MI, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, France, Glens Falls NY, Holyoke MA, New York, New York NY, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Clubs and Societies, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Plattsburgh NY, Québec, Religion, Springfield MA, United States, War -
Employing the Local : A Penobscot Modern in the Federal Writers' Project
Essay exploring the 1930s Federal Writers' Project interview of Indian Island, Maine, resident and canoe maker, Henry Mitchell, transcribed by Old Town native, Robert Grady. Arguments favoring the particularly modern quality of the dually-authored interview, as compared to outside depictions of Native Americans in the local Maine literatures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. How early 20th-century Old Town business and local government perpetuated the construction of stereotyped and antiquated Penobscot cultural categories and descriptions - aesthetically, linguistically, or in terms of work and leisure. How the literary output of the Federal Writers' Project played into this sort of identity construction on a more diverse, national scale, and in what ways singular FWP interactions like those between Grady and Mitchell challenged both the national project and the local cultural categories it sometimes reinforced. What the Mitchell/Grady interview owes to the relationship out of which it was born, Grady's other interviews mostly conducted with Franco Americans in Old Town.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Business and Economics, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Government and Politics, Indian Island ME, Maine, Native Americans, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Old Town ME, Penobscot, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Violence -
Mr. Zero of Canada
Short essay on social activist and champion for the rights of the poor in New York City, Urbain Ledoux, also known as "Mr. Zero." An introduction to the Canadian family from which Ledoux came, a brief biographical portrait of him and his early success in government, and a characterization of his tactical, arguably radical methods as a later advocate for social reform, individual reformation, and basic rights for those in need - particularly the unemployed and homeless men in downtown Manhattan, New York City, in the 1920s and 1930s. -
About Men : A Middle-Aged Orphan
Short essay on the recurring presence of writer Clark Blaise's deceased father - the stories he both took with him and left behind, and the impact of certain memories of this man on Blaise in his adult life. -
Sentinel editorial writer inept in treatment of ethnic slurs
Letter to the editor berating Waterville, Maine's Morning Sentinel editorial staff for failing to criticize a Portland-based radio station (WBLM) that frequently included in its morning show a segment poking fun at a Franco American character. Cites an article in which the editorial staff "trivialize[d]" complaints against the radio program's arguable ethnic discrimination, and chastises the newspaper for missing an opportunity to heighten local conversation about ethnic humor and cultural stereotypes. -
Your New Country
Transcription of a Biddeford, Maine, woman's life as told by her in brief stories to interviewers. Her youth in Quebec - being the oldest child of a large family - and her community there. Her marriage and snippets of her later life in Maine. Some daily habits and holiday traditions. A documentary profile, illustrated in black and white photo. -
In search of the real Kerouac
Review of the documentary film on Jack Kerouac, entitled, "Whatever Happened to Kerouac?" (Richard Lerner and Lewis McAdam, 1987). Film is a biographical portrait of the Lowell, Massachusetts, writer, featuring interviews with Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and William S. Burroughs, among others. Article written on the occasion of the film's showing in Somerville, Massachusetts. -
Vieux articles et vieux ouvrages : Notes biographiques sur Messire P.J.B. Bédard, le prêtre patriote, fondateur de la paroisse de Notre-Dame...
Premiière partie d'une piièce biographique sur un prêtre canadien-français aux Etats-Unis. Sa jeunesse et son éducation; son désir de missionize pour les collectivités françaises de Nouvelle-Angleterre, et son éventuelle relocalisation à Flint Village, Fall River, Massachusetts. Sa fondation d'une paroisse nationale dans Fall River. -
Vieux articles et vieux ouvrages : Le Rev. M. Bédard, curé de Fall River (1886) Suite. [no. 1]
Deuxiième partie d'une piièce biographique sur un prêtre canadien-français aux Etats-Unis. Sa vie comme curé de la paroisse à Flint Village, Fall River, Massachusetts. Ses préoccupations culturelles au sein de sa paroisse, et les aspects de ses relations avec les paroissiens et les prêtres irlandais-américaine. Certains événements dans la vie des catholiques franco-américaines de Fall River à la fin du 19ième siiècle.Tags Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Flint Village MA, Ireland, Irish Americans, Massachusetts, Mills and Mill Work, New England, Nonfiction, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Providence RI, Québec, Quequechan River Valley, Religion, Rhode Island -
Franco-American man helps others awaken cultural backgrounds through writing workshops : Mapping Memories
Article about fiction writer Denis Ledoux of Lewiston, Maine, who has turned to helping others write their own personal histories. Ledoux's workshop, "Turning Memories into Memoirs," has sparked international interest from writers, genealogists, community historians, and others in recording their family histories. -
A is for Allagash' : The life of a northern Maine man
Article on a recent memoir on the life and times of Louis Pelletier in the Allagash, Maine, of the past century. His family, his work in the woods, and his memories of early twentieth-century northern Maine. Co-authored by Louis and his daughter, fiction writer Cathie Pelletier. -
Vieux articles et vieux ouvrages : Le Rev. M. Bédard, curé de Fall River (1886) Suite. [no. 2]
Troisiième partie d'une piièce biographique sur un prêtre canadien-français aux Etats-Unis. Les communications avec son évêque, et ses efforts à développer une paroisse nationale à Fall River, au Massachusetts. Quelques commentaires sur les efforts de ce prêtre à la lutte contre la maltraitance des canadiens-français catholiques et les travailleurs de la Nouvelle-Angleterre. Sa maladie et sa mort éventuelle. Une réimpression de l'article sur son cérémonies funéraires comme présenté dans le périodique canadien, "Castor." Une transcription de son "testament de feu."Tags Acadians, Bowenville MA, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, East Douglas MA, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Flint Village MA, Ireland, Irish Americans, Marlboro MA, Massachusetts, Millbury MA, Mills and Mill Work, Nashua NH, New Bedford MA, New England, Nonfiction -- History -- Religion, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Providence RI, Québec, Quequechan River Valley, Religion, Rhode Island, Taunton MA, Tiverton RI, Westport MA, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
'American Ghosts' : Haunted House
A review of "American Ghosts" - memoir from fiction writer and Providence, Rhode Island native, David Plante. The reviewer describes the book as "a perfect example of the cockpit autobiography," leading the reader into the thoughts and images of a writer's life from the navigational standpoint. -
LePage's Franco-American heritage depicted in mural
Letter to the editor criticizing Maine governor Paul LePage for his order to remove a mural depicting Maine's labor history from the walls of the Maine Department of Labor. A reference to how Maine's and LePage's Franco American history is largely intertwined with the history of Maine labor. An attack on LePage with reference to distinctions of economic class. -
Kerouac in Black and White
An essay in exploration of Jack Kerouac's French-Canadianness in twentieth-century America. How digging into this particular ethnicity, time, and place shapes how one considers Kerouac's late-life ideas about race, his relationship with religion, or the stylings of his writing. Blaise considers Kerouac alongside other fiction writers (William Faulkner, Theodore Dreiser, William Saroyan, Thomas Wolfe) that, to Blaise, have engaged their fiction in similar conversations with both sentimentality and American diversity. From the author of "I Had a Father: A Post-Modern Autobiography" and "Lunar Attractions." Also published in "Selected Essays" by Clark Blaise (Emeryville, Ontario: Biblioasis, 2008). -
'Beast' nostalgic for Quebec roots
Article subtitled, "This first novel describes the attempt of a Franco-American to find out who he is." A review of the 1984 novel "The Questing Beast" and a brief biographical sketch of its author, Richard Hébert. -
Class dramatizes the Franco-Mainer experience
Bowdoin College senior seminar in the French language culminates in a documentary film and a theatrical piece. Students used information learned through over 60 hours of interviews with local Francos. -
Débuts de la colonie franco-américaine de Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Un portrait riche et approfondie de la naissance d'un des plus grandes communautés franco-américaines du Rhode Island. Présenté en trois parties: "Histoire de l'ancien Woonsocket et de ses environs," "L'émigration des Canadiens français aux Etats-Unis en général et à Woonsocket, R.I., en particulier," et "Les Franco-Américains et le Woonsocket contemporain." Illustré avec des photos en noir et blanc, et aussi avec quelques arbres généalogiques de familles franco-américaines à Woonsocket.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Blackstone River Valley, Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Demography, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Genealogy, Government and Politics, Journalism, Manville RI, Mills and Mill Work, Native Americans, New England, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Religion, Rhode Island, Smithfield RI, Social History, War, Woonsocket RI -
Backing Calumet Club
Letter to the editor regarding the 1989 Le Club Calumet controversy sparked by a woman's seeking entry into the all-male club. Offers a measure of support for the Augusta, Maine, Club in its rejection of the woman's request. -
Private clubs can exclude
Letter to the editor on the subject of Augusta, Maine's Franco American social club, Le Club Calumet, excluding women from its membership. -
Do it this way, Nancy
Letter to the editor chastising Nancy Albert Ellis, the woman who in 1989 sought entry into the all-male Franco-American social club, Le Club Calumet, of Augusta, Maine. -
Club is like a private home
Letter to the editor questioning the motives of Nancy Albert Ellis, the woman who in 1989 sought entry into an all-male Franco American social club, Le Club Calumet, of Augusta, Maine. -
Calumet should stay as it is
Letter to the editor in support of the 1989 decision of Augusta, Maine's Le Club Calumet to reject the membership application of a woman, Nancy Albert Ellis, and remain an all-male organization. -
Calumet's first-class women
Letter to the editor lauding the women who volunteer at the all-male Franco American social club, Le Club Calumet, in Augusta, Maine, without becoming club members. Comes in response to the controversy of a woman whose attempt at membership in the Club was rejected, and who appealed to the Maine Human Rights Commission to prove the Club's unlawful discrimination based on her sex. -
'Le Club' is masculine
Letter to the editor that argues (tongue-in-cheek?) how the gender of the French term "le club" is reason enough for Le Club Calumet of Augusta, Maine, to justify rejecting a woman's application for membership in 1989. -
Ellis' win will destroy club
Letter to the editor arguing that if Le Club Calumet, a Franco-American social club in Augusta, Maine, is forced by the Maine courts to admit women, and is thereby ruled a "public" organization, it will no longer be able to limit its membership based on ethnicity. -
Was it sex discrimination?
Letter to the editor that asks whether discrimination based on gender is different from discrimination based on ethnicity, and if Le Club Calumet, a Franco-American social club in Augusta, Maine, is not allowed by its private status to limit its membership based on both sex and ethnicity. -
La femme franco-américaine
Un recueil d'essais sur la femme franco-américaine tant qu'individuelle ainsi qu'un partie d'une collectivité sociale - de la France vers le Canada, du Québec vers les États-Unis. Certains expériences de femmes franco-américaines, et l'examen des situations historiques particuliières des femmes dans la culture franco-américaine. Du texte : "La femme franco-américaine a toujours vécu dans l'ombre: dans l'ombre du clocher, dans l'ombre de la salle de classe, dans l'ombre de la salle de travail à l'usine, dans l'ombre de curé, dans l'ombre de son mari. Le moment était arrivé, nous semble-t-il, de l'en sortir pour étaler au grand jour son apport indispensable à la vie et à la survie de la Franco-Américanie" (iii).Tags Acadians, Canada, Central Falls RI, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Family, Fitchburg MA, France, Gender and Sexuality, Labor History, Leominster MA, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Massachusetts, Montréal QC, Nashua NH, New England, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Anthology, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Religion, Rhode Island, Social History, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
Teaching the wrong lesson
Letter to the editor in response to Nancy Albert Ellis' objection to being refused membership in Le Club Calumet, a Franco-American social club in Augusta, Maine. Letter writer cites the Club's right to legislate as a private organization, even to limit membership based on one's citizenship. -
Kiss old Calumet goodbye
Letter to the editor criticizing the comments of Le Club Calumet's legal representation, Norman Bourget, and giving thanks to the 1989 decision by the Maine Human Rights Commission declaring the Club discriminatory for its refusal to admit women as members. -
Private club made public
Letter to the editor claiming that the Maine Human Rights Commission discriminated against the Franco-American community when it ruled that Le Club Calumet was a public organization and should admit women as members - or else be taken to court on account of its discriminatory bylaws. -
Calumet faces big problems
Letter to the editor acknowledging the problems that would potentially arise for Le Club Calumet - an all-male Franco American social club in Augusta, Maine - if it were declared public by the judicial system, and thus forced by law to admit women as members. -
Why sue Club Calumet?
Letter to the editor questioning the Maine Human Rights Commission's decision to sue le Club Calumet of Augusta, Maine. MHRC asserted the unlawful discrimination inherent to the Club's bylaws that restrict membership based on sex. -
Out of kitchen for good
Letter to the editor written in response to a guest column penned by Augusta, Maine performer, Jean-Paul Poulain. This letter addresses the need for cultural sensitivity, but argues that women must be involved - including at the level of membership in the historically all-male Franco American social club, Le Club Calumet. -
An Open Letter to Whom It May Concern: A Rebuttal to Calumet Club Superior Court's Judgment
A lengthy open letter concerning the potential effects of Kennebec County Superior Court's ruling against Le Club Calumet, charging it to begin admitting women into the membership ranks of its historically all-male establishment in Augusta, Maine. The letter's primary concern is the court's designation of the Club as a "public accommodation," not a private one, that might potentially be forced to admit any person without regard for ethnicity. -
Not private vs. public
A letter to the editor in response to Maurice Violette's "An Open Letter..." (9 October 1991), contesting Violette's fixation on the matter of "public vs. private" as the keystone of the debate surrounding Le Club Calumet's recent Kennebec County, Maine, courtroom loss, and its being forced by law to admit women to the ranks of its membership. -
Calumet hurt its own
Letter to the editor opposed to the Maine Supreme Court's decision in favor of Le Club Calumet barring women from membership in its Augusta, Maine, organization. -
Ellis wants media attention
Letter to the editor questioning the motives of Nancy Albert Ellis in her filing suit against Le Club Calumet of Augusta, Maine, for refusing her a membership based on her sex - a suit she eventually lost in the Maine Supreme Court. -
Anti-Calumet attitude
Letter to the editor berating Augusta, Maine's Kennebec Journal for its selective coverage of the controversy involving Le Club Calumet and Nancy Ellis - a battle over gender and club membership that landed both parties in the Maine Supreme Court. -
Equal or a step down?
Letter to the editor questioning the meaning of the phrase "equal rights" as it has been used in the conversation between Nancy Albert Ellis and the all-male Club Calumet of Augusta, Maine. -
French women must unite
Letter to the editor calling upon "all women of French ancestry" to unite in response to the Maine Supreme Court's decision to allow the Calumet Club of Augusta, Maine, to refuse membership to women. -
Men should do it all
Letter to the editor calling for gender equality in cutural organizations. This comes in support of Nancy Albert Ellis, whose bid to join the Calumet Club in Augusta, Maine, was rejected, and ultimately denied in a decision by the Maine Supreme Court. -
Club lost peace pipe
Letter to the editor berating Le Club Calumet of Augusta, Maine, for its refusal of Nancy Albert Ellis' membership bid on account of her sex. The author seeks a peaceful resolution to what became a controversial issue surrounding the inclusion of women in Club ranks. -
Doesn't make it right
Short letter to the editor written against Maurice Violette's letter of May 28, 1992, coming in the wake of Le Calumet Club's rejection of a woman vying for membership in the Augusta, Maine, all-male organization. -
Saving Franco culture
Letter to the editor calling upon Franco Americans and Le Club Calumet to look past the controversial 1992 Maine Supreme Court case regarding club identity and gender, and to consider the best way of using all available resources for cultural preservation. -
The American Labor Movement
A first-person history of the American labor movement - the growth of labor unions and the development of collective worker consciousness from the middle of the nineteenth century until the middle of the twentieth. A century of labor in primary sources. A selection of newspaper articles, government hearing transcripts, interviews, and other publications from the labor movement, its observers, and its dissenters, guided and framed by the author to clarify historical context. Brief sections from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Corporation of Manchester, New Hampshire, as well as labor and industry in other New England towns. Instances of both striking and strike-breaking.
Contains the following chapter titles: Background of Discontent Organization Responses to Unionism Weapons of Resistance Organizing the Unorganized: The 1930s Labor at Midcentury: Memories and RealitiesTags Business and Economics, Chicago IL, Colorado, Dedham MA, Fall River MA, Government and Politics, Labor History, Manchester NH, Massachusetts, Mills and Mill Work, New Hampshire, New York, New York NY, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Norwich CT, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Rochester NY, Social History, Taftville CT, United States, Youth -
The Voice of Maine
A collection of oral history portraits from around the state of Maine. Introduction written by Marshall Dodge, and foreword from Robert Coles. From the text: " 'The Voice of Maine' offers an extraordinary glimpse into the heart and soul of the people of Maine. From an unknown lobsterman's wife to the famous Nearings of Harborside, from northern woods to coastal towns, the perceptive interviews of Bill Pohl and the outstanding photographs of Abbie Sewall present a remarkable State, and its even more remarkable residents, in honest, close-up portraits that captivate as well as entertain and inform. For millions Maine is a special place, and here both ordinary and well-known people speak openly and clearly about what they find here, how they live, and make a living, far removed from modern urban society."Tags Bailey Island ME, Bath ME, Bucks Harbor ME, Community: Customs and Social Life, Damariscotta ME, Family, Fishing, Five Islands ME, Forestry, Greenville ME, Harborside ME, Maine, Manana Island ME, Millinocket ME, Native Americans, New Sweden ME, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Documentary, North Whitefield ME, Orland ME, Orr's Island ME, Owl's Head ME, Penobscot River Valley, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Pleasant Point ME, Portland ME, Robinhood ME, Rockport ME, Social History, South Addison ME, South Bristol ME, Sports and Leisure, Stonecutting, Stonington ME, West Point ME, Winnegance ME -
He exemplifies the modern priesthood
Extended article on Augusta, Maine, Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Valmond Gilbert, celebrant of St. Augustine Church. Discusses his community involvement - religious, economic, political, and otherwise. Includes photos of Fr. Gilbert at mass, with Augusta schoolchildren, and with Augusta legislator, Rep. Patrick Paradis. -
Talking Acadian : Communication, Work, and Culture
A case study in intercultural communication, with linguistic and psychological insight into the dynamics of an American Acadian community in Gardner, Massachusetts. Large emphasis on the communal value of work, or how ideas about work are situated in the grammar of Acadian American dialogue. From YBK Publishers: " 'Talking Acadian: Communication, Work and Culture' provides a look into the lives of the French-speaking American Acadians, and particularly those who left eastern Canada to settle in Masschusetts in the 1960s. This book captures their stories about family life and their values, mores and morals. It also traces the ways that they use communication to develop and maintain their culture.What the reader learns is that to talk about Acadians you must talk about work. This group gives us new insights into the world of work - a central feature of living for the Acadians and crucial to their self-definition."Tags Acadians, Community: Customs and Social Life, Criticism and Review, Family, Folklore, France, Gardner MA, Labor History, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Brunswick, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Anthropology, Nonfiction -- Language and Linguistics, Nonfiction -- Performance Studies, Nonfiction -- Psychology, Nonfiction -- Social Sciences, Nova Scotia, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Religion, Salem MA, Sports and Leisure -
'Quiet Presence' still resonates with cultural awareness
Article on Dyke Hendrickson's 1980 oral history book, "Quiet Presence," and its perceivable resonance into the present day. -
Quiet Presence : Dramatic, First-Person Accounts : The True Stories of Franco-Americans in New England
Historical overview of Franco Americans in New England. 27 interviews that lend personality, locality, and intimacy to the author's history. Hendrickson's work has led to his being quoted as a commentator on immigrant labor history in an exhibit of millworkers featured in the Museum of National Heritage at Ellis Island, New York.Tags Augusta ME, Biddeford ME, Caribou ME, Eagle Lake ME, Fall River MA, Farming and Agriculture, Forestry, Fort Kent ME, Labor History, Lawrence MA, Lewiston ME, Madawaska ME, Manchester NH, Mansfield MA, Manville RI, Methuen MA, Mills and Mill Work, New Brunswick, New Orleans LA, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Pawtucket RI, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Religion, Rochester NH, Saco ME, Sand Hill ME, Sanford ME, Somersworth NH, Springvale ME, War, Waterville ME, Westbrook ME, Winooski VT, Woonsocket RI -
Nov. 9 Letters to the Editor: French ascendency
Letter to the editor questioning the reasoning behind Maine governor-elect Paul LePage's emphasis on his "French" heritage, and the value of his being the first elected Franco-American governor to the state. -
The First Franco-Americans : New England Life Histories from the Federal Writers' Project, 1938-1939
Selective reprinting of Franco American oral interviews from the late 1930s' Federal Writers' Project. Brief historical introductions to Manchester NH, Old Town ME, Woonsocket RI, and Barre VT, followed by the interviews with workers that took place in those cities. Rare voices from Franco American communities of this time period, in the aftermath of the Great Depression. A publication in the social and oral history traditions of Ann Banks's "First-Person America" and Studs Terkel's "Hard Work."Tags Acadians, Acculturation and Assimilation, Alcohol and Drugs, Barre VT, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Folklore, Forestry, Gender and Sexuality, Government and Politics, Illness, Labor History, Language and Linguistics, Manchester NH, Mills and Mill Work, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Old Town ME, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Religion, Social History, Sports and Leisure, Stonecutting, Woonsocket RI -
Acadian Hard Times : The Farm Security Administration in Maine's St. John Valley, 1940-1943
Collection of photos of farmers, farm families, and landscapes in the St. John Valley, Maine, taken by the federal Farm Security Administration in the early 1940s. Doty gives historical context and new captions to the photos. The book concludes with new photos from a 1980s return to the people and places visited decades earlier by the FSA.Tags Acadians, Business and Economics, Caribou ME, Community: Customs and Social Life, Family, Farming and Agriculture, Food, Fort Kent ME, Frenchville ME, Government and Politics, Grand Isle ME, Keegan ME, Labor History, Lewiston ME, Lille ME, Maine, Mills and Mill Work, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Nonfiction -- History -- Pictorial, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Sinclair ME, Soldier Pond ME, St. Agatha ME, St. David ME, St. John River Valley, Van Buren ME, Wallagrass ME, Youth -
Franco-American Viewpoints
Illustrations of Massachusetts' Franco American cultural landscape in personal photos, personal interviews, and historical context. A local pictorial history in short form, singular in its use of quotations.Tags Acadians, Albany NY, Chicopee MA, Community: Customs and Social Life, Connecticut River Valley, Easthampton MA, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Fall River MA, Family, Fitchburg MA, Gardner MA, Holyoke MA, Labor History, Lawrence MA, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Maine, Massachusetts, New Bedford MA, New England, New York, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Nonfiction -- History -- Pictorial, Northampton MA, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Religion, Springfield MA, Vermont, Waltham MA, Worcester MA -
The Beginnings of the Franco-American Colony in Woonsocket, Rhode Island
English translation of 1920's "Débuts de la colonie franco-américaine de Woonsocket, Rhode Island." A rich and in-depth portrayal of the birth of one of Rhode Island's largest Franco-American communities. Divided into three parts: town origins, immigration and genealogy, and a contemporary portrait including biographies and modern institutions.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Blackstone River Valley, Community: Customs and Social Life, Demography, Emigration and Immigration, Essay, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Genealogy, Journalism, Native Americans, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Religion, Rhode Island, Woonsocket RI -
Southside Canadians : A Family Journey
Pictorial account of a family's immigration that begins in Europe and moves through Canada into the United States, ultimately to Chicago, Illinois's Southside in the 20th and 21st centuries. -
More Than Petticoats : Remarkable Maine Women
A collection of biographical sketches of Maine women with unique accomplishments, and of those who have made significant contributions to their communities and to the state at large. One of the many books in the "More than Petticoats" series, the collection of which is comprised of books particular to each state in the USA. From Pequot Press: "This book recreates the life-and-times of thirteen inspiring and independent women in fascinating, brief biographies. Meet Marguerite "Tante Blanche" Thibodeau Cyr, the "mother of Madawaska," whose bravery and kindness during one brutal winter saved her frontier settlement; botanist-artist Kate Furbish, who tramped Maine's wilderness, collecting, classifying, and painting all of its flowering plants; and Florence Nicolar Shay, a Penobscot basketmaker who demanded and succeeded in gaining rights for her people."Tags Acadians, Brunswick ME, Community: Customs and Social Life, Eagle Island ME, Family, Farmington ME, Gender and Sexuality, Madawaska ME, Maine, Native Americans, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Portland ME, Religion, Rockland ME, Skowhegan ME, South Berwick ME -
Family Time and Industrial Time : The Relationship Between the Family and Work in a New England Industrial Community
Study of the complex relationship between family dynamics and demanding mill work. Takes as its focus the industrial city of Manchester, New Hampshire, its vast mill complexes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the worker families that inhabited its communities and spun its wheels of industrial production. A theoretical look at family in American social history. A discussion of oral history as historical form and methodology. Originally published by Cambridge University Press. From University Press of America: "The myth that industrialization broke down traditional family ties has long pervaded American society. Professor Hareven, a leading social historian, dispels this myth and illustrates how the family survived and became an active force in the modern factory. In this book, Hareven examines the multiple roles that the workers' families fulfilled in facilitating their adaptation to the pressures of changing work patterns and new modes of life in an industrial city. She reconstructs family and work patterns among immigrants as well as native textile laborers over two generations during a crucial period in the transformation of American industry from the late nineteenth century....A case study based on what was the world's largest textile plant - the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire - the book integrates a wide array of documentary evidence with oral testimony. It examines the lives of real people - the way they acted, the way they perceived their lives, and the kinds of decisions they made when pacing their lives in relation to the demands of the industrial system."Tags Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Labor History, Manchester NH, Mills and Mill Work, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Social History -
Amoskeag : Life and Work in an American Factory-City
History of the former Amoskeag mills and Manchester, New Hampshire, through the eyes and mouths of their laborers and citizens. Contains worker interviews, as well as a detailed study of mill divisions and processes. From the book jacket: "The book focuses on the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, once the largest textile factory in the world. The shells of its awesome mills still extend for two miles along the Merrimack River in Manchester, New Hampshire. Never before have we known so vividly what it was like to live a life in the closed world of a single gigantic industrial entity, from the first moment a child set foot in a mill carrying his father's or mother's lunchpail to the moment he retired or was laid off 60 years later."Tags Community: Customs and Social Life, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Labor History, Manchester NH, Merrimack River Valley, Mills and Mill Work, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Social History -
Franco-American Life and Culture in Manchester, New Hampshire : Vivre La Différence
An intimately crafted Franco American cultural history of Manchester, New Hampshire, written by one of its resident historians. From the author of such works as "One Piece in the Great American Mosaic," "La Presse Franco-Américaine et La Politique," and "Elpheège-J. Daignault et le mouvement sentinelliste," among others. From The History Press: "A strong sense of unity and tradition frames a fascinating history of Manchester, New Hampshire's Franco-American community. Author Robert B. Perreault presents this story through compelling vignettes, including the triumphant success of photographer Ulric Bourgeois, the undeniable conflict between the French and Irish immigrants, and a colorful profile of book collector and author Adélard Lambert. Featuring vintage images from Perreault's private collection, this work is a stunning visual narrative of the French-Canadian contributions to local culture."Tags Art and Architecture, Community: Customs and Social Life, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Gender and Sexuality, Journalism, Labor History, Manchester NH, Mills and Mill Work, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Social History, Violence -
Come Set in the Warm: Twenty-or-so Anecdotes of Rural Vermont
Collection of folklore that, transcribed by a listener, also has the function of oral history. Concerning story, home, and rural life in Vermont. -
Marie-Rose, Stigmatisée de Woonsocket' : The Construction of a Franco-American Saint Cult, 1930-1955
From a publication of the Canadian Catholic Historical Association. Essay that situates the early-twentieth-century "mystic stigmatic" figure of Marie-Rose Ferron in a Franco American religious history. Using Ferron's biography as measure, Kaell sees the fringe cult around her, as well as her failed canonization, in contrast with the popular saintly tradition of the Canadian Thérièse of Lisieux. Kaell teases out this and other comparisons between Franco and Québécois religiosity and nationalism using Ferron's life and history. From the author: "First, this paper is an examination of how a hagiographer, Onésime Boyer, worked to create a saint cult that ultimately ended in failure. Second, and more importantly, this paper uses Boyer's construction of Rose's cult to provide a window into Franco-American Catholic culture that was incorporating wider trends, like 'victimhood,' and anchoring itself firmly in an American milieu. Finally, this paper raises a number of questions for further study, urging more comprehensive analyses of Franco-American history and religion."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Criticism and Review, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Gender and Sexuality, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Religion, Ogdensburg NY, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Religion, Social History, War, Woonsocket RI -
Hard Stone, Hard Feelings
Article compiled from oral history interviews Vermont stonecutters of the early twentieth century. Featured in the Vermont Folklife Center's annual publication, "Visit'n." From the Vermont Historical Society: "Because many French Canadians first came to work in Barre's granite quarries during the strikes of '22 and '33, their relations with Italian granite workers and other ethnic groups were at first very tense."Tags Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Folklore, Italian Americans, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History, Nonfiction -- History -- Documentary, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- History -- Local, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Stonecutting, Vermont, Violence -
First-Person America
Edited and annotated compilation of oral histories from the Federal Writers' Project of the 1930s Works Progress/Projects Administration (WPA) in the United States. These selections come mostly in the form of short passages that aspiring writers recorded from people in various parts of the United States during the onslaught and aftermath of the Great Depression. Banks's famous book is an indispensable part of the canon of American social history, and a testament to the efforts of recorders of local American histories in the 1930s. From the author's website: "First Person America brings together eighty oral histories gathered in the 1930's by the Federal Writers Project, including stories of a North Carolina patent medicine pitchman, a retired Oregon gold prospector, a Bahamian midwife from Florida, a Key West smuggler, Chicago jazz musicians, union organizers and others."Tags Barre VT, Chicago IL, Community: Customs and Social Life, Durham NC, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Farming and Agriculture, Florida, Gender and Sexuality, Labor History, Lowell MA, Maine, Manchester NH, Massachusetts, Montana, Music, New Mexico, New York NY, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Oklahoma, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Social History, South Carolina, Texas, United States -
Storytelling in Daily Life : Performing Narrative
Performance studies theory text. Maine Franco American case studies in a discussion of the methods and forms of storytelling. Written by two University of Maine professors. From Temple University Press: "The authors ably guide readers through the complex world of performing narrative. Along the way they show the embodied contexts of storytelling, the material constraints on narrative performances, and the myriad ways storytelling orders information and tasks, constitutes meanings, and positions speaking subjects. Readers will also learn that narrative performance is consequential as well as pervasive, as storytelling opens up experience and identities to legitimization and critique. The authors' multi-leveled model of strategy and tactics considers how relations of power in a system are produced, reproduced, and altered in performing narrative....The authors explain this strategic model through an extended discussion of family storytelling, using Franco Americans in Maine as their exemplar. They explore what stories families tell, how they tell them, and how storytelling creates family identities. Then, they show the range and reach of this strategic model by examining storytelling in diverse contexts: a breast cancer narrative, a weblog on the Internet, and an autobiographical performance on the public stage. Readers are left with a clear understanding of how and why the performance of narrative is the primary communicative practice shaping our lives today."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Bangor ME, Criticism and Review, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Gender and Sexuality, Language and Linguistics, Lewiston ME, Maine, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Performance Studies, Old Town ME, Performing Arts, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, St. John River Valley -
Steeples and Smokestacks : A Collection of Essays on the Franco-American Experience in New England
Essay collection on the diverse aspects of Franco American community and life in New England. Emphases on French Canadian immigration to New England; religion, education, and community life; and Franco American literature. Includes a wide range of materials from writers and scholars throughout the region. Contents: Claire Quintal - Introduction I. Emigration Yves Roby - "The Economic Evolution of Quebec and the Emigrant (1850-1929)" Mason Wade - "The Acadian Background" Fernand Arsenault - "Acadians and Emigration" Neil Boucher - "The Case of the Acadians of Southwest Nova Scotia" II. Franco-American Communities Gerard J. Brault - "An Overview of Studies Relating to Franco-American Communities in New England" Frances H. Early - "The Settling-In Process: The Beginnings of the Little Canada in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the Late Nineteenth Century" Marcella Harnish Sorg - "Community Formation in Old Town, Maine, 1835-1930: Endogamy and Natal Origins Among the Acadians" Michael J. Guignard - "The Franco-Americans of Biddeford, Maine" Philip T. Silvia, Jr. - "Neighbors from the North: French-Canadian Immigrants vs. Trade Unionism in Fall River, Massachusetts" Charles W. Estus and Kenneth J Moynihan - "Beyond Textiles: Industrial Diversity and the Franco-American Experience in Worcester, Massachusetts" Paul D. LeBlanc - "From Farm to Factory: Acadians in Fitchburg, Massachusetts (1880-1910)" III. Religion Michael J. Guignard - "The Corporation Sole Controversy" Yves Roby - "Franco-Americans and the Catholic Hierarchy" Jacquelyn Alix, P.F.M - "The Foundation of the Little Franciscans of Mary in Worcester, Massachusetts" Yves Garon, A.A. - "The Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joan of Arc: A Franco-American Foundation" Pierre E. Lanchance, O.P. - "Saint Anne's Shrine, Fall River, Massachusetts" IV. Education Armand B. Chartier - "The Spiritual and Intellectual Foundations of the Schooling of Franco-Americans" Gerard J. Brault - "The Achievement of the Teaching Orders in New England: The Franco-American Parochial Schools" V. Literature, Journalism, and Folklore Armand B. Chartier - "Toward a History of Franco-American Literature: Some Considerations" Robert B. Perreault - "The Franco-American Press: An Historical Overview" Richard S. Sorrell - "La Sentinelle and La Tribune: The Role of Woonsocket's French Language Newspapers in the Sentinelle Affair of the 1920s" Richard S. Sorrell - "'History as a Novel, the Novel as History': Ethnicity and the Franco-American English-Language Novel" Béatrice Belisle MacQueen - "Corinne Rocheleau-Rouleau (1881-1963): Advocate for the Handicapped" Janet L. Shideler - "Camille Lessard-Bissonnette (1883-1970): Immigrant Author and Itinerant Journalist" Michel Lapierre - "Rosaire DIon-Lévesque (1900-1974): Poet and Translator of Walt Whitman" Brigitte Lane - "Three Major Witnesses of Franco-American Folklore in New England: Honoré Beaugrand, Adélard Lambert, and Roméo Berthiaume" Donald Deschênes - "The Dream of a Better Life in the Songs of Departure for the United States" VI. The Franco-American Woman Charlotte Borders LeBlanc - "History and Mission of the Fédération Féminine Franco-Américaine (1951-1991)" Marcelle Chenard - "A Franco-American Lay Missionary, Iriène Farley (1893-1961" Yves Roby - "A Portrait of the Femal Franco-American Worker (1865-1930)" VII. Franco-Americans Today Madeleine D. Giguière - "New England's Francophone Population Based Upon the 1990 Census" Clarence J. d'Entremont - "Acadian Survivance in New England" Yves Roby - "From Franco-Americans to Americans of French-Canadian Origin or Franco-Americanism, Past and Present" VIII. The View From Within Claude Milot - "Arthur Milot's Memoirs: Childhood Memories" Lucien A. Aubé - "From the Parochial School to and American University: Reflections on Cultural Fragmentation" David Plante - "Tsi Gars" John Dufresne - "Telling Stories in Mémière's Kitchen" Claire Quintal - ContributorsTags Acadians, Acculturation and Assimilation, Bibliography, Biddeford ME, Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Connecticut, Death and Disaster, Demography, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Essay, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Farming and Agriculture, Fiction and Literature, Fitchburg MA, Folklore, Forestry, Gender and Sexuality, Journalism, Labor History, Language and Linguistics, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Lynn MA, Madawaska ME, Maine, Manchester NH, Massachusetts, Merrimack River Valley, Mills and Mill Work, Montréal QC, Music, New Brunswick, New England, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Anthology, Nova Scotia, Old Town ME, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Poetry, Québec, Religion, Rhode Island, Vermont, Violence, Waltham MA, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
A Brief History of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts
1931 diocesan history from a densely populated Massachusetts mill town. Dedicated in 1832, FRD's cathedral parish is St. Mary's, while the city's traditionally Franco American parish - St. Anne's - was established in 1869.Tags Acushnet MA, Assonet MA, Attleboro MA, Bass River Valley, Brewster MA, Centerville MA, Chatham MA, Dennisport MA, Dighton MA, East Taunton MA, Easton MA, Fairhaven MA, Fall River MA, Falmouth MA, Freetown MA, Hyannis MA, Labor History, Mansfield MA, Marion MA, Mashpee MA, Massachusetts, Mattapoisett MA, Mills and Mill Work, New Bedford MA, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Religion, North Attleborough MA, North Dartmouth MA, Norton MA, Oak Bluffs MA, Onset MA, Orleans MA, Osterville MA, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Pocasset MA, Provincetown MA, Raynham MA, Religion, Sandwich MA, Seekonk MA, Somerset MA, Swansea MA, Taunton MA, Wareham MA, Wellfleet MA, Westport MA -
Franco-Americans of the State of Maine, U.S.A., and Their Achievements : Historical, Descriptive, and Biographical
From the text: "This volume is published chiefly for the purpose of showing the achievements of the Franco-American citizens of Maine to-day. Written from an independent viewpoint, the work seeks to make familiar to English reading people the status of those of French-Canadian birth or parentage in the professions - business, religious, and social affairs of our state." -
Les "Chinois" de l'est, ou, la vie quotidienne des Québécois émigrés aux États-Unis de 1840 aè nos jours
Lafleur prends la phrase "les Chinois de l'Est" d'une description pejorative de la franco-américanie et l'utilise aè illustrer la vie et l'histoire franco-américaine. Le texte concerne la Nouvelle-Angleterre en totale, mais sa centre primaire est la ville de Watertown, Connecticut. De son intro et sa conclusion: "Enfin, ce travail est loin d'etre exhaustif et n'a pas la prétention d'un étude scientifique et objective. Il se veut simplement la voix de ceux et celles qu'on a parfois considérés comme des 'traitres aè la patrie.'...Le retour aux sources et la passion de se connaitre font qu plusieurs Franco-Américains se tournent aujourd'hui vers le Québec, berceau du sang francais en Amérique du Nord. Pourquoi leur faire la sourde oreille?"Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Burlington VT, Central Falls RI, Community: Customs and Social Life, Emigration and Immigration, Journalism, Labor History, Laconia NH, Louisiana, Manchester NH, Mills and Mill Work, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- General, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Pittsfield MA, Québec, Religion, Springfield MA, St. Albans VT, Swanton VT, United States, Ware MA, Waterbury CT, Watertown CT, Winooski VT, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
Histoire des Franco-Américains de Southbridge, Massachusetts
Une histoire des arrivées, origines, et de la religion, la communauté, l'art et la vie politique des Franco-Américains de Southbridge, Massachusetts. ècrit en 1919. De la texte: "A l'occasion du Cinquantenaire de la Paroisse Notre-Dame, des Noces d'Or de la Societé St-Jean-Baptiste, et du retour de nos Soldats, qui ont pris part aè la guerre mondiale." -
Guide officiel des Franco-Américains
Un répertoire/annuaire d'endroits et peuples (noms et biographes) franco-américains aux États-Unis. Des hommes d'affaires, religieuses, ou les autres personnes publiques ou importantes à leur communauté. Avec histoires des paroisses et des sociétés mutuelles. Divisé par état, ville, village, et paroisse. Mis à jour et publié neuf fois entre 1922 et 1940. -
La presse franco-américaine et la politique : l'oeuvre de Charles-Roger Daoust
La vie et les ouevres d'un écrivain franco-américain dans la Nouvelle Angleterre, actif à la fin du XIXe siiècle. Son journalisme politique au début du vingtiième siiècle et sa rélation avec le début du journalisme franco aux États-Unis.Tags Cohoes NY, Community: Customs and Social Life, Fall River MA, Government and Politics, Journalism, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Montréal QC, Nashua NH, New Bedford MA, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Journalism, Pawtucket RI, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Plattsburgh NY, Québec, Southbridge MA, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
Dictionnaire des auteurs de langue française en Amérique du Nord
Index d'auteurs (biographique, bibliographique) nord-américains qui écrivent dans la langue française. -
The French Régime in Wisconsin and the Northwest
Reprinted in 2007 by Heritage Books. A history of the French in North America - particularly what would become the US Midwest - from colonization to the middle 18th century. Contains semi-biographical pieces on explorers from that period. Focuses mainly on Wisconsin.Tags Canada, Death and Disaster, Exploration and Colonization, Farming and Agriculture, Forestry, Great Lakes Region, Illinois, Mississippi River Valley, Montréal QC, Native Americans, Ottawa ON, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Religion, St. Lawrence River Valley, US Midwest, War, Wisconsin -
Black Robe on the Kennebec
Historical piece on early French Jesuits missionizing to Abenaki in Maine's Kennebec River Valley in the 17th century.Tags Acadians, Art and Architecture, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Exploration and Colonization, France, Government and Politics, Illinois, Kennebec River Valley, Maine, Native Americans, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Religion, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Religion -
Of Place and Gender: Women in Maine History
From UMaine Press: "This volume of fourteen essays on Maine women's history fills a real need, helping to answer questions about what women were doing in local communities and highlighting their similarities and differences from women elsewhere. Maine women were sometimes in the forefront of change and sometimes lagged behind; most of the time they were preoccupied with the tasks of daily life, as were women in other parts of the world. However, the details of women's activities at home and in the community, like the context in which they were done, helps to set Maine women apart. The essays in this volume offer insight into a rich variety of Maine women, some famous and some ordinary, some intent on changing their lives and their society and others struggling to survive, some confined by family and work to farm or village and others able to travel the world. Taken together, their stories enrich our understanding of Maine, of women, and of history."Tags Appleton ME, Bangor ME, Community: Customs and Social Life, Emigration and Immigration, Essay, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Farming and Agriculture, Fryeburg ME, Gender and Sexuality, Indian Island ME, Labor History, Lewiston ME, Maine, Mills and Mill Work, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Old Town ME, Orono ME, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Portland ME, Searsport ME, Skowhegan ME, Sports and Leisure -
Women at Work : The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860
From Columbia University Press: "In this prize-winning study, Thomas Dublin explores, in carefully researched detail, the lives and experiences of the first generation of American women to face the demands of industrial capitalism. Dublin describes and traces the strong community awareness of these women from Lowell [Massachusetts] and relates it to labor protest movements of the 1830s and 40s."Tags Boston MA, Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Demography, Family, Gender and Sexuality, Great Britain, Labor History, Lawrence MA, Lowell MA, Massachusetts, Merrimack River Valley, Mills and Mill Work, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Social History, Waltham MA -
Farm to Factory : Women's Letters, 1830-1860
From Columbia University Press: "Between 1820 and 1860, tens of thousands of single women streamed from rural New England to find work in the burgeoning factory towns of the region. In 'Farm to Factory' Thomas Dublin has selected five sets of letters in order to provide a personal view of the first generation of American women employed for wages outside their own homes. The letters he has selected provide a unique perspective on early industrial capitalism and its effects on women."Tags Business and Economics, Emigration and Immigration, Family, Farming and Agriculture, Gender and Sexuality, Haverhill MA, Labor History, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Massachusetts, Merrimack River Valley, Mills and Mill Work, Nashua NH, New England, Newbury VT, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Rochester NH, Social History, Vermont -
Canadiens et Américains chez eux : journal, lettres, impressions d'une artiste française
Un texte par Armand Dupras (France Ariel est un pseudonyme) sur une tournée de concerts du trio musical Larrieu (de la France) aux États-Unis dans les années 1910. -
Histoire et généalogie des Acadiens
Gros anthologie en six tomes sur les gens acadiens. La premiière partie est un histoire des peuples, et les autres parties sont divisées par les sujets et géographies suivant: 2) Port-Royal, 3) Beaubassin, Grand-Pré, 4) Pisiguit, Cobequid, Chipoudy et Petitcoudiac, Cap-de-Sable et Pobomcoup, Rivieère Saint-Jean, Ristigouche, 5) Plaisance, Ile Royale incluant Louisbourg, Ile Saint-Jean, 6) Iles Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Bordeaux, Belle-Ile-en-Mer, Louisiane.Tags Acadians, Death and Disaster, Emigration and Immigration, Exploration and Colonization, Family, France, Genealogy, Government and Politics, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi River Valley, Native Americans, New Brunswick, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- General, Nova Scotia, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Prince Edward Island, Québec, St. Lawrence River Valley -
Ah les États! : Les travailleurs canadiens-français dans l'industrie textile de la Nouvelle-Angleterre d'apreès le témoignage des derniers migrants
Un portrait historique des travailleurs canadiens-français aux États-Unis, dans les usines de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, au prémiere moitié du 20e siiècle. Les synthièses historiques de l'immigration et du travail, avec certaines statistiques pertinentes. Témoignages de ceux et celles qui ont travaillé aux Etats-Unis. Des breves discussions sur l'adaptation des immigrants au travail et la vie industrielle, à la vie aux États-Unis, et sur les gens qui sont retournés au Québec dans le 20e siiècle. Des témoignages - des histoires orales - de 1981 et 1982, des entrevues avec sept travailleurs canadiens-français qui a vécu les expériences décrites dans le récit historique de l'auteur. Illustrée dans les photos noirs et blancs.Tags Biddeford ME, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Family, Labor History, Lawrence MA, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Manville RI, Mills and Mill Work, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- General, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Social History, Taunton MA, Ware MA -
Immigrants from the North : Franco-Americans recall the settlement of their Canadian families in the mill towns of New England
From the preface: "This book is the culmination of a two-year project conducted by Hyde School students and faculty. With the backing of grants from the Ethnic Heritage Studies Division, Office of Education, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, [Hyde School] started this project to learn about Franco-American history in Maine. The book traces the French-Canadian immigration to Maine and the development of their culture as seen through the experiences of forty Franco-Americans." -
Nine Lives for Labor
A biographical tribute to nine members of the Textile Workers Union of America, represented in mills across the industrial United States. Characterization of conditions at various mills, including those in Fall River, Massachusetts, and Cohoes, New York.Tags Bedford MA, Cohoes NY, Fall River MA, Labor History, Lawrence MA, Lowell MA, Lynchburg VA, Memphis TN, Mills and Mill Work, Nashville TN, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Philadelphia PA -
Immigrant Voices : New Lives in America, 1773-1986
From University of Illinois Press: "In this richly evocative collection ten men and women of European, Latin American, and Asian backgrounds tell of their immigrant experiences. They range from a Shetland Islander who sailed to Virginia as an indentured servant before the American Revolution to a Vietnamese refugee family living in Chicago in the 1980s....Thomas Dublin presents diaries, letters, reminiscences, and oral history in a volume that memorably reflects the diversity and commonalties of two centuries of U.S. immigration. His introduction places the primary sources in a broad interpretive framework and offers readers an overview of the place of immigration in national development." -
Immigration as a Factor in American History
Varied selections of scholarship, speeches, interviews, and articles that, according to the author, "attempt to illustrate the immigration contribution to American civilization and the forces which brought the movement to a close" (Handlin, intro). Pays homage to the impact of immigration on the entirety of the United States, and looks to federal government's role in stemming the inflow of people to the States in the middle of the twentieth century. Oscar Handlin won a Pulitzer Prize in 1952.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Community: Customs and Social Life, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Government and Politics, Labor History, Language and Linguistics, Mills and Mill Work, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Religion, Social History, United States -
Elpheège-J. Daignault et le mouvement sentinelliste aè Manchester, New Hampshire
Une examination du mouvement sentinelliste aè l'éxterieur de Providence, Rhode Island, dans une autre ville franco-américain: Manchester, New Hampshire. Perreault écrit une nouvelle type de l'histoire sentinelliste telle qu'elle était concevu par le journaliste Elphege-J. Daignault. Ce texte tiens beaucoup des articles publié par Daignault sur l'affaire sentinelliste. De l'avant-propos: "Mais nous désirons, cependant, offrir au moins les quleques renseignements suivants qui portent sur la question sentinelliste telle qu'elle toucha les Franco-Americains dans un autre coin de la Nouvelle Angleterre. Il s'agit d'une série d'éditoriaux rédigés par le directeur de La Sentinelle de Woonsocket, Rhode Island, maitre Elphiège-J. Daignault, ou celui-ci discute de la situation paroissiale et d'éducation au New Hampshire, et plus précisément, dans la Paroisse Saint-Georges de Manchester." -
Rencontres et entretiens
Des contes de la mémoire de la jeunesse de Lambert, un émigré canadien-francais aux États-Unis au but du vingtiième siiècle. L'idée de la survivance reste à l'arriere-plan du texte. Le fin de livre contien des messages accueillant écrits aux immigrants canadiens par des Américains proéminants (e.g., Teddy Roosevelt).
De Lambert: "Ces écrits contenaient une foule de notes prises au hasard sur le fait et gestes des premiers Canadiens établis dans les Etats de la Nouvelle Angleterre." -
From Evangeline to Papa, or How to Acquire a Past : A Sociological/Historical Perspective on French/Canadian Americans
A self-published, self-printed sociology project written for Goddard College. A series of journal entries from July 1976 written on an American's trip through Nova Scotia. Includes conversations, information about historical places, and general reflections on the French Acadian heritage of the region.Tags Acadians, Biddeford ME, Brunswick ME, Emigration and Immigration, Language and Linguistics, Lewiston ME, Maine, New Brunswick, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Social Sciences, Nonfiction -- Sociology, Nonfiction -- Travel and Tourism, Nova Scotia, Old Town ME, Orono ME, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Sanford ME, Waterville ME -
The Belles of New England : The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove
A history of New England women during industrialization, and the lifestyle differences among women of different economic classes. From Thomas Dunne Books: "This is a masterful, definitive, and eloquent look at the enormous cultural and economic impact on America of New England's textile mills. The author, an award-winning CBS producer, traces the history of American textile manufacturing back to the ingenuity of Francis Cabot Lodge. The early mills were an experiment in benevolent enlightened social responsibility on the part of the wealthy owners, who belonged to many of Boston's finest families. But the fledgling industry's ever-increasing profits were inextricably bound to the issues of slavery, immigration, and workers' rights....William Moran brings a newsman's eye for the telling detail to this fascinating saga that is equally compelling when dealing with rags and when dealing with riches. In part a microcosm of America's social development during the period, 'The Belles of New England' casts a new and finer light on this rich tapestry of vast wealth, greed, discrimination, and courage."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Biddeford ME, Boston MA, Business and Economics, Connecticut, Death and Disaster, Emigration and Immigration, England, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Farming and Agriculture, Gender and Sexuality, Great Britain, Ireland, Labor History, Lawrence MA, Lewiston ME, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Mills and Mill Work, Nashua NH, New Bedford MA, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Religion, Saco ME, Saco River Valley, Social History, Sports and Leisure, Waltham MA -
L'harmonica dans la musique traditionnelle québécoise : histoire, techniques, partitions, musiciens
Un histoire de la musique québécoise et de l'harmonica. Des techniques de jouer l'harmonica du facon québécois traditionel. Des biographies d'un quatre-vingtaine de musiciens québécois. -
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie
Maine native Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem about "le Grand Dérangement" - the Acadian Expulsion - and one Acadian woman's rampant search for a love lost. This text also includes an introduction, a brief historical sketch of the Acadians, and a short biography of Longfellow. From the editor: "This is a special commemorative edition of the great poem to honor the Acadians as they celebrate the 400 year anniversary, in 2004, of the first Acadian settlement; remember the 250 year anniversary of the deportation in 2005; and accept the Queen's "acknowledgement of the facts of the deportation" and her proclamation of July 28 of every year as "A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval," starting on July 28, 2005."Tags Acadians, Art and Architecture, Connecticut, Death and Disaster, England, Exploration and Colonization, France, Georgia, Language and Linguistics, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Native Americans, New Brunswick, New York, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Poetry, Prince Edward Island, Québec, South Carolina, St. David ME, St. John River Valley, United States, Van Buren ME -
History of the Acadians
Translation of the first volume of Arsenault's original historical collection, "Histoire et généalogie des Acadiens." This volume, "Histoire des Acadiens," attempts a comprehensive history of the Acadian people - their arrival in sixteenth-century North America, the developments of their communities in modern day Nova Scotia, and their historical persistence through expulsion and dispersion. This volume sets the context for the more intimately local and pointedly genealogical approaches to the subject of the Acadians undertaken in the subsequent volumes of Arsenault's collection.Tags Acadians, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Emigration and Immigration, Exploration and Colonization, Family, Farming and Agriculture, France, Genealogy, Government and Politics, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi River Valley, Native Americans, New Brunswick, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- General, Nova Scotia, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Prince Edward Island, Québec, St. Lawrence River Valley, Violence -
History of the Huguenot Emigration to America : Volumes I and II
Late nineteenth-century historical text on the Huguenot emigration from a France in religious strife to the eastern coast of North America between the middle 16th and middle 18th centuries. According to the author, Volume 1 of this 2-volume text only concerns Huguenot history as it relates to New England. Volume 2 concerns "the Middle and Southern provinces or States - in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware - and in Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina."Tags Acadians, Antilles, Brazil, Canada, Emigration and Immigration, England, Family, Florida, France, Massachusetts, Native Americans, New England, New Rochelle NY, New York, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Nova Scotia, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Religion, South Carolina, Staten Island NY, Switzerland, War -
Mémoires d'une famille acadienne de Van Buren, Maine
Une histoire culturelle des Acadiens de la Vallée St-Jean dans le Maine, présentée dans les mémoires d'une famille acadienne de Van Buren. Six chapitres racontés avec les photos et les materiaux historiques d'une famille du Maine: l'émigration à l'Amérique du nord de la France; les gens acadiens et la vie agricole en Acadie; la paroisse Catholique St-Bruno de la Vallée St-Jean; la cuisine locale de Van Buren; les jeux et le folklore. -
Entre nous la neige : correspondance québécaméricaine
Une collection de lettres echangées entre deux écrivain(e)s et deux pays, Canada et les Etats-Unis, au début des années 1980. -
A Map of Mexico City Blues : Jack Kerouac as Poet
From Southern Illinois University Press: "In this pioneering critical study of Jack Kerouacâ's book-length poem, 'Mexico City Blues' a poetic parallel to the writerâ's fictional saga, the 'Duluoz Legend' James T. Jones uses a rich and flexible neoformalist approach to argue his case for the importance of Kerouacâ's rarely studied poem....After a brief summary of Kerouacâ's poetic career, Jones embarks on a thorough reading of 'Mexico City Blues' from several different perspectives: he first focuses on Kerouacâ's use of autobiography in the poem and then discusses how Kerouacâ's various trips to Mexico, his conversion to Buddhism, his theory of spontaneous poetics, and his attraction to blues and jazz influenced the theme, structure, and sound of Mexico City Blues....Jonesâ's multidimensional explication suggests the formal and thematic complexity of Kerouacâ's long poem and demonstrates the major contribution Mexico City Blues makes to post–World War II American poetry and poetics."
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Entraidez-vous : Stick Together
A collection of Franco-American folklore from the northern communities of the state of Vermont. From the foreword to the text: "We have tried to assemble here some of the folklore of the French-American that we have been able to find in the past year in the northern part of Vermont. In this book, you will find some riddles, sayings, songs, poetry, recipes, and some favorite old home remedies."Tags Alburg VT, Bloomfield VT, Canaan VT, Charlestown NH, Coventry VT, Derby Line VT, Folklore, Food, Grand Isle VT, Holland VT, Illness, Island Pond VT, Isle LaMotte VT, Music, Newport VT, North Hero VT, North Troy VT, Norton VT, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Poetry, South Hero VT, Troy VT, Vermont -
Shifting Perspectives from the North : Québec
Brief essay on the discipline of United States history in Canada, the influence of American perspectives on Canadian historiography of the US, and how attitudes toward cross-boundary historiography change over time. Ramirez takes a semi-biographical approach: the Italian scholar, educated in both the US and Canada, who took up American history at the University of Toronto, and taught American history at a Francophone Montréal university.Tags Canada, Criticism and Review, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Government and Politics, Labor History, Mills and Mill Work, Montréal QC, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Historiography, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Social History, Toronto ON, United States -
The Politics of Personal Narrative Methodology
Performance studies theory essay that explores in specific an interview with a Franco-American woman in Maine. From Peterson and Langellier: "Any study of personal narrative involves researchers and performers in contested, hence political, concerns of context and power. These concerns tend to be obscured methodologically by three commonplace assumptions: personal narrative is a text, personal narrative can be fully transcribed and analyzed, and personal narrative is not performance. This essay examines these assumptions and illustrates their methodological implications with an excerpt from an interview narrative with a breast cancer survivor." -
French Canada's Diaspora and Labour History
Review of Jacques Rouillard's text, "Ah les Etats!: les travailleurs canadiens-français dans l'industrie textile de la Nouvelle-Angleterre d'apriès le témoignage des derniers migrants" (Boreal Express, 1985) couched in a brief reflection on Franco-American history. From the text: "More than ever it struck me as to just how elitist French Canada's historiography has been and to a large degree remains. The constitutional, nationalist, neo-nationalist, and ideological schools have all been recycling the same elitist hash: in essence a Whig interpretation from the loser's perspective. Rouillard's emigrants, however, were the survivors in the grand tradition of la survivance. Personal interests came first..." -
Madawaska Twin Barn
From the authors: "Virtually unique to the upper St. John Valley of Maine, the Madawaska twin barn is a large structure consisting of two parallel sections joined to form an "H." Although the form has its origin in a restricted barn building tradition of nineteenth century Québec, oral history research and detailed survey suggest that the barn is not the product of direct diffusion. Rather it is a symbol of French Canadian culture adopted during the period between the 1880s and 1930s when French valley residents were eager to assert their "Franco-American" identity. The Madawaska twin barn displays some affinity to American barns in Aroostook County and particularly the Yankee symbol, the connecting barn. However, its appearance is also French Canadian. The distribution of the twin barn defines an area of French Canadian and American interaction which remains distinct." -
Voyages : A Maine Franco-American Reader
Celebrated collection of essays, stories, poems, songs, art, and other works on the history of Franco American people and their communities in Maine. Features the following writings by their respective authors, in order of appearance:
Foreword by Nelson Madore Appreciation by the Editors Preface by Michael Michaud Introduction by Barry Rodrigue and Others Gentility on the Frontiers of Acadia, 1635-1674: An Archaeological Perspective, by Alaric Faulkner Eastern Abenaki Autonomy and French Frustrations, 1745-1760, by David Ghere An Album in the Attic: The Forgotten Frontier of the Quebec-Maine Borderlands During the Revolutionary War, by Barry Rodrigue Life on the Farm and Recipes, by Luella and Eva Ashland Roderick Immigrants in a Frontier Community: Madawaska, 1785-1850, by Béatrice Craig An Acadian Odyssey, by Don Cyr Soldiers, Spuds, and Spruce: Maine's Military Roads to the Maritimes, by Barry Rodrigue Understanding the French Canadians of Lewiston, 1860-1900, by Yves Frenette Immigrant Dream - I, by Susann Pelletier Growing Up in Brunswick in the 1930s and 1940s, by Raymond Duval Petit Bois, by Claude Bonang with Katie Camiré Into the Heart of Maine: A Look at Dexter's Franco-American Community, by Dorothy Blanchard Sawdust in My Ear, by Roland Lapointe Franco-American and Lebanese Textile Workers in Waterville: La survivance economique, by Matthew Laflamme "Je ne regrette rien:" Franco-American Women in Maine: Survival, Resiliency, and Community, by Céleste DeRoche A La Mémoire de nos Ancetres (To the Memory of Our Ancestors), by Mercedes Gastonguay The French Catholics in Maine, by Clement Thibodeau Negotiating Ethnic Identity: St. Jean-Baptiste Day Celebrations in Francophone Lewiston, Maine, by Mark Paul Richard Donat Labbé - Woods Cook, by Yvon Labbé The Jackman and Moose River Mission: From France to America with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Lyons, 1904-1932, by Gérard Forgue A New Home, by Paul Caron A Childhood Memory: Midnight Mass at St. Peter's and St. Paul's, by Helen Lévesque Maine's Corporation Sole Controversy, by Michael Guignard The Summer I Was Thirteen, by Denis Ledoux An Introduction to "Life in the Mills" from Canuck, a Novel by Camille Lessard-Bissonnette, by Linda Pervier "Life in the Mills," Excerpt from Canuck, by Camille Lessard-Bissonnette and Linda Pervier An Introduction to Canuck and Camille Lessard-Bissonnette: Why Read It Now?, by Sylvie Charron and Rhea Côté Robbins Franco-Americans and the International Paper Company Strike of 1910, by Anders Larson An Excerpt from Papa Martel, by Gérard Robichaud J'Aimais (I Used to Love), by Jean-Paul Poulain Passing the Flame, by Cindy Larock French-Canadian Genealogical Research, by Bob Chenard Down the Plains, an Excerpt, by Rhea Côté Robbins Calice, by Greg Chabot The Lane Road, 1958, by Susann Pelletier What We Gather in November, by Susann Pelletier How Many Frenchmen Does It Take to..., by C. Stewart Doty The Lessons of Living in a Francophobic World, by Pat LaMarche French Jokes, Anonymous When Funny Might Not Be..., by Ernie Gagné One of Frenchie's Stories: In Heat, by Ernie Gagné La Graine Pousse (The Seed Sprout), by Normand Dubé Everything's Just Finophobia, by Greg Chabot Research Note: Maine "Jim Crow"? The Forgotten Maine Constitutional Amendment of 1891, by Rebecca Dirnfeld A Short Biography for My Daughter, by Raymond Luc Lavasseur Under Wintery Constellation, by Susann Pelletier A ceux qui m'ont offensé (For Those Who Have Offended Me), by Jean-Paul Poulain Franco-American Identity at the University of Maine, by Michael Serizawa Brown Beau Frog, by Peter Archambault Out of the Shadows, by Yvon Labbé Photo-Documentary: Franco-American Work Traditions, by Jere DeWaters A Québec Soldier in Maine, by Barry Rodrigue The Silent Playground, by Ross and Judy Paradis Mémere (Grandmother), by Raymond Luc Lavasseur Tourtiière (Meat Pie), by Philomiène Létourneau Simard and Diane Simard McKenney Voicing Mémière, by Kristin Langellier On Becoming a Franco-American, by Richard Pattenaude She Appears, by Jim Bishop Livres (Books), by Maureen Perry My Writing of La Souillonne (The Filthy Woman), by Normand Beaupré "Qui Chus" (Who I Am), Excerpt from La Souillonne, by Normand Beaupré Franco-Americans and a Century of Political Elections, 1892-1992, by Madeleine Giguière Ad Astra per Aspera - To the Heavens through Hardship: The Franco-American Rise to Political Power in Maine, by Christian Potholm First Campaigns, Georgette Bérubé Maine Franco-Americans in Politics, by John Martin Singing the Vernacular, Excerpts, by Paul Paré Brunswick: A Bridge and Its History, by Julianna L'Heureux Les Non Non Blues (The No No Blues), by Josée Vachon Acadian Ployes, by Emily Clavet Ouellette Martin and Sandra Dionne Croft The Neighborhood, by Michelle Morgan Why Bother? by Michael ParentTags Acadians, Acculturation and Assimilation, Art and Architecture, Business and Economics, Community: Customs and Social Life, Death and Disaster, Demography, Emigration and Immigration, Essay, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Exploration and Colonization, Family, Farming and Agriculture, Fiction and Literature, Folklore, Food, Forestry, Gender and Sexuality, Genealogy, Geography, Government and Politics, Labor History, Language and Linguistics, Maine, Mills and Mill Work, Music, Native Americans, New Brunswick, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Anthology, Nova Scotia, Performing Arts, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Poetry, Québec, Religion, Social History, Sports and Leisure, Violence, War -
"Don't I long for Montreal" : L'identité hybride d'une jeune migrante franco-américaine pendant la Premieère Guerre mondiale
De Fahri et Frenette: "Entre juillet 1917 et octobre 1918, Alma Drouin, jeune Franco-Américaine de Laconia, au New Hampshire, séjourne a` Montréal. Ce sont les perspectives de mobilité professionnelle offertes par la métropole du Canada qui l'y ont attirée, ainsi que la vie trépidante qu'elle y percevait. A`partir de sa correspondance et de son journal intime, nous avons tenté de saisir les représentations que se fait Alma de sa vie quotidienne à Montréal et de comprendre comment cette grande ville fait partie de sa cartographie mentale, qui est plus vaste; Alma Drouin est en fait porteuse d'une identité hybride et d'une conscience transnationale, qui se manifeste notamment par sa participation à un réseau épistolaire canado-américain. Tout comme son usage de la mobilité géographique à des fins de mobilité sociale, le réseau épistolaire d'Alma s'inscrit dans une tradition migratoire occidentale et canadienne-francaise. Si elle se construit dans sa correspondance et son journal intime comme une jeune travailleuse autonome, Alma dépend néanmoins d'un important réseau transfrontalier de parents, d'amis et de connaissances." -
Robert G. LeBlanc, 1930-2001
Short piece honoring geographer and historian Robert G. LeBlanc, and introducing his two major pieces of scholarship: one on the Acadian migrations, the other on the Québec ties of the New England Franco-American elite. -
Intellectual Desire
Autobiographical essay that attempts to tease out intersections between class, culture, and sexuality. Bérubé recounts his past "in a way that focuses on class, ethnic, and educational migration" out of a homebase in working-class Franco America. The author writes: "I do my work now in the borderlands between social classes, between the university and the community, between heterosexual and homosexual, between educated speech and down-to-earth talk, between Franco-American and Québécois, between my family and the gay community." Reprinting of a presentation Bérubé gave at the 1992 Montreal colloquium, "La Ville en Rose: Le Premier colloque Québécois d'études lesbiennes et gaies." Also available in the anthology, "Queerly Classed: Gay Men and Lesbians Write About Class" (Boston: South End Press, 1997).Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Aldenville MA, Androscoggin River Valley, Chicopee MA, Connecticut River Valley, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Gender and Sexuality, Holyoke MA, Merrimack River Valley, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Essay, Penobscot River Valley, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Social History -
From Mills to Millennium : Documenting Social Change Through Oral Histories Among Three Generations of Franco-Americans in Manchester
Dissertation describing the historical development of a Franco American cultural identity through oral history interviews conducted by the author with sixteen Franco American people in the Manchester, New Hampshire region. Includes two parts: video recording of interviews and thesis text with historical background, select transcription, and contextualized analysis of interviews. Interviewees vary in age between 19 to 90. Includes personal historical introduction, historical background on the Franco American community in Manchester, and discussion of broad themes relevant to interview topics as identified by the author: memory, place, and identity as well as "family, education, religion, and discrimination"(iv). Discussion of "assimilation theory" in a Franco American context.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Community: Customs and Social Life, German Americans, Greek Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Manchester NH, Merrimack River Valley, Mills and Mill Work, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- Social Science: Anthropology and Sociology, Nonfiction -- Social Sciences, Nonfiction -- Sociology, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Polish Americans, Religion, Violence -
A Comparative Study of French Canadian Loggers and Their Families
Dissertation presenting anthropological research on French Canadian loggers at work in northern New Hampshire in the middle twentieth century. The impact of work situations on the families of loggers, and the influence of family life on structures and patterns of work in the woods. Observations on the differences between New Hampshire loggers who have immediate families living in Québec with those who have families in the United States. Takes into account work mobility, kinship and household norms, father-absence, and conceptions of logging and family life as interrelated factors distinguishable between workers of different living situations. Presented in historical contexts of French Canadian labor and migration, as well as with a background in the cultural norms of the French Canadian family.Tags Alton NH, Bald Brook NH, Bartlett NH, Bear Brook NH, Beecher Falls NH, Berlin NH, Bloomfield VT, Canaan VT, Colebrook NH, Dixville NH, Easton NH, Emigration and Immigration, Errol NH, Family, Forestry, Gender and Sexuality, Glencliff NH, Groveton NH, Island Pond VT, Jackson NH, Kennebago ME, Labor History, Long Lake ME, Maidstone VT, Moultonborough NH, Nash Stream NH, Nashua NH, New Hampshire, Newcomb NY, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Anthropology, Nonfiction -- Social Sciences, North Concord VT, Parmacheenee ME, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Pittsburg NH, Pontook Reservoir NH, Québec, Religion, Rumford ME, Rumney NH, Social History, Speculator Lake NY, Stratford NH, Travel and Movement, Tupper Lake NY, Twin Mountain NH, Warren NH, West Milan NH, Whitney Park NY -
Identity Discourse in Three Franco-American Life Histories from the U.S. Federal Writers' Project
Critical reading of three Franco American oral history interviews from the Federal Writers' Project of the late 1930s. An exploration of how the participants in each interview constructed identities of self and community through the stories they chose to tell and the manners in which the stories were communicated. Begins with explanation of this author's specific concerns with methods of "critical discourse analysis," and is contextualized historically with an introduction to the history of New England's Franco American communities in general. Concludes with questions of the shape and substance of a 21st-century Franco American identity, illustrated in the author's own self-examination . From the author: "This project explores the social construction of ethnic identity among Franco-Americans, the descendants of French-Canadian immigrants to the northeastern United States....The project concludes with reflections on how the life narratives might inform a postmodern Franco-American ethnic identity."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Canada, Community: Customs and Social Life, Criticism and Review, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Labor History, Language and Linguistics, Manchester NH, Mills and Mill Work, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Old Town ME, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Religion, Social History, United States -
"Accidents of terrain" : The native and foreign worlds of David Plante
From the author: "David Plante, an American writer born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1940, examines the inextricable connection between space and time, place and identity in his most important work, a series of semi-autobiographical novels and short stories about the Francoeur family. This study follows Daniel Francoeur, Plante's principal recurring character and fictional counterpart, on a journey of self-discovery in five novels that are representative of the three decades of Plante's career and illustrative of experiences located in both the native and foreign environments of his fictional world. In these five novels: The Family, The Woods, The Country, The Foreigner, and The Accident, Plante maps a terrain that extends in time and space from the insular French Canadian, Catholic parish in Providence where Daniel Francoeur grows up to the cities of Europe where he spends his late adolescence." -
Images of French Language and Culture Outside of France : A Survey of a Franco-American Population in New England
From the author: "In the first part of the dissertation, we analyze the institutions which traditionally favored bilingualism: the family, the parochial school, the Catholic parish, the social environment, the media and other organisms such as mutual benefit societies and social clubs. The second part deals with images of French language and culture. These chapters treat of the non-linguistic make-up of Franco-American culture, the way Franco-Americans perceive their ethnic tongue and their attitudes towards it, and the written and oral French mastery of our population. In the final part of the analysis, we examine how Franco-American ethnic identity is defined by the individuals questioned and their views on the future of French language and culture in New England."Tags Community: Customs and Social Life, Connecticut, Demography, Education, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Journalism, Language and Linguistics, Maine, Massachusetts, New England, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- French in North America, Nonfiction -- Language and Linguistics, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Religion, Rhode Island, Vermont -
La littérature française de Nouvelle-Angleterre
Un oeuvre qui explore le phénomiène de la littérature langue française écrit et lit dans la Nouvelle-Angleterre, jusqu'à 1945. Réédité en 1946 par Fides, les Publications de l'Université Laval (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5198661).Tags Acadians, Boston MA, Canada, Community: Customs and Social Life, Criticism and Review, Fall River MA, Fiction and Literature, Fitchburg MA, Government and Politics, Holyoke MA, Journalism, Language and Linguistics, Lewiston ME, Literary Works, Literary Works -- Criticism and History, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Montréal QC, New England, New York, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Poetry, Religion, United States, Vermont, Woonsocket RI, Worcester MA -
Morphosyntactic Variation and Language Shift in Two Franco-American Communities
From the author: "Although the originally French speaking Franco-American communities of Southbridge, Massachusetts, and Woonsocket, Rhode Island, have much in common historically, language shift toward English has advanced to differing degrees in the two locations. In this dissertation, I explore morphosyntactic variation and the advance of language shift in the two locations using historical documentation, U.S. census figures and sociolinguistic interviews conducted with sixty-nine informants....After comparing and contrasting the sociolinguistic profiles of the two communities, I describe some of the linguistic consequences of the shift from French to English in these traditional Franco-American centers through a quantitative variationist analysis of two morphosyntactic variables. These are auxiliary variation in the passé composé and variation between use of the synthetic and analytic futures. Findings from Southbridge and Woonsocket provide new insight for understanding linguistic change during situations of language decline..."Tags Acadians, Acculturation and Assimilation, Community: Customs and Social Life, Connecticut, Demography, Education, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Language and Linguistics, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New England, New Hampshire, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Language and Linguistics, Ontario, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, Southbridge MA, Vermont, Woonsocket RI -
The Status of French Among Youth in a Bilingual American-Canadian Border Community : The Case of Madawaska, Maine
From Price: "This study examines the status of the French language among young residents of Madawaska, Maine, a US-Canadian border community with a long history of bilingualism and contact with French speakers. This study views language status as having two distinct yet interrelated components: (1) code role, or characteristics associated with the use of a given language or variety, such as attitudes of speakers toward the variety and its use, the proficiency level of speakers, language use patterns, and so forth, and (2) code nature, or the state of the variety in question in terms of syntax, phonology and lexicon. The data, collected by means of four interview tasks, targeted both code role and code nature and sought to determine the general status of French among the younger residents of this community. In addition to the younger subject population, a small adult baseline population was also included in order to compare data across generations, so as to identify not just possible differences in code role, but also in code nature, including the possibility of language loss....The data suggested several trends. First, in terms of code role, young subjects generally reported lower levels of language use, proficiency and exposure to French than did adults. Secondly, not only did high-proficiency young subjects generally report higher scores in these areas than did lower-proficiency subjects, but males tended to score higher than females in this regard. This would suggest that exposure to French, context, language proficiency and gender correlate with language use among this population. Conversely, attitudes do not generally appear to be a salient factor motivating French language use. With regard to code nature, the study found that even the most proficient young speakers demonstrated some important gaps in their grammatical competence, and that the young subject population as a whole exhibited features in their production consistent with language loss. The study concludes that although there are still many individuals with ability in French, the differences between younger and older speakers in terms of both code role and code nature suggest that local French will be lost unless further action is taken to reverse the progress of French language loss among young bilinguals in the community."Tags Acadians, Acculturation and Assimilation, Community: Customs and Social Life, Demography, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Fort Kent ME, Frenchville ME, Gender and Sexuality, Geography, Language and Linguistics, Madawaska ME, New Brunswick, New England, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- Language and Linguistics, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec, St. John River Valley -
Following the Evangeline Trail : Acadian Identity Performance Across Borders
From the author: "The poem 'Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published in 1847, has had an impact on people for generations. The success of the poem was felt not only by its readership but also by the Acadian culture that the poem, and its heroine, came to represent. Evangeline, as character and poem, has evolved in meaning and popularity over the centuries and still plays a role in the cultural performance of contemporary Acadians....This study of Acadian cultural identity utilizes a performance approach that looks at cultural identity as a performative accomplishment in daily life. The analysis first enacts a performance historiography of the Acadian Deportation in 1755, Longfellow's poetic representation of this historical event, and the contemporary context of performing Evangeline in the Acadian diaspora. Next it examines the storytelling performances of narrative interviews with five Acadians. Three of these Acadians still live in the land of Evangeline, in Grand-Pre, Nova Scotia, and the other two live in Maine. Retellings of the story of Evangeline and reflections on the poem and character by each of the participants were analyzed for meanings which form and inform contemporary performances of Acadian cultural identity. The performance methodology allows for meanings to emerge from the embodied Acadian storytelling and to contextualize them in cultural and political spheres...." -
"These Lines of My Life" : Franco-American Women in Westbrook, Maine : The Intersection of Ethnicity and Gender, 1884-1984
Historical perspectives on Franco American women in Westbrook, Maine, and evolving perspectives on gender and ethnicity over one century. -
British and Canadian Immigration to the United States since 1920
Dissertation on the "invisible immigrants" to the United States from Britain and Canada between the 1920s and 1960s. From the author: "Always among the most numerous groups of immigrants to the United States, until 1969, the British and Canadians seldom claimed the attention of historians, just as they caused little discussion among the American people generally. Sharing a common language and closeness of culture with the Americans, the British and Canadians remained unhyphenated--they were America's 'invisible immigrants.'...A number of important studies on the British immigrant, if not the Canadian, do exist, but they are concerned with the Britons' experiences and their contribution to the American mosaic during America's 'century of immigration,' the one hundred years from 1815 to 1914. The purpose of this study was to extend the record of British and Canadian immigration beyond the statistical reports of government departments since the hiatus of World War I and to present an interpretive commentary on the significance of these two streams of immigration--to the sending countries; to the receiving country; and to a sample of individual immigrants themselves." -
Franco-American Folk Traditions and Popular Culture in a Former Milltown : Aspects of Ethnic Urban Folklore and the Dynamics of Folklore Change in Lowell, Massachusetts
From Lane: "Being Americans of French-Canadian descent, the Franco-Americans of New England possess a rich and original traditional culture which has been little documented up to now, especially in English....As a result, this dissertation, which is a study in ethnic folklore and popular culture, attempts to provide an overview of the folk-traditions of French expression still existing today among the Franco-American community of Lowell, Massachusetts....This work is basically divided into two parts. The first two chapters of Part I deal with the general historical and cultural background of the Franco-Americans of New England, in general, and Lowell, in particular, while the third chapter looks at previous research in the domain of ethnic folklore and, more specifically, Franco-American folklore. Aspects of folklore performance and context are considered from the historical point of view of the Lowell Franco-American community....Part II, on the other hand, deals mainly with the documentation of the various realms of Franco-American folk-traditions, here classified according to genre. Traditional narratives ("contes"), popular jokes ("histoires droles"), children's songs and rhymes, and elements of oral history as well as aspects of traditional singing, music and dance are consecutively considered with sample texts of each genre given and analyzed. Further supporting documents are also presented in the appendices....Because Franco-American culture (and therefore Franco-American folklore and popular culture) is the historical result of successive migrations (from France to what is known today as Canada and, from Canada to New England) this study also takes into account the phenomenon of cultural continuity as well as some aspects of the dynamics of culture change which are viewed here as a process resulting from the conflict having taken and still taking place between two opposing forces: cultural maintenance and assimilation....Most of all, however, this work is a first step into the field of Franco-American oral-traditional genres, popular culture and an homage to ethnic creativity."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Bedford NH, Burlington VT, Canada, Community: Customs and Social Life, Emigration and Immigration, Folklore, France, Lowell MA, Manchester NH, Massachusetts, New Brunswick, New England, Nonfiction -- Anthropology, Nonfiction -- Social Sciences, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Social History, Woonsocket RI -
Le milieu, l'appartenance et l'integration à la société américaine : la littérature comme outil de connaissance des Franco-Américains
Thièse de premier cycle qui explore les écrits de Jack Kerouac, Robert Perreault, Gérard Robichaud, et Rhea Côté Robbins. Une analyse de leurs littératures comme oeuvres franco-américaines, ou exemples de «littératures mineures» qui offrent un commentaire unique sur la géographie et l'idée d'un «sentiment d'appartenance». Undergraduate thesis that explores the writings of Jack Kerouac, Robert Perreault, Gerard Robichaud, and Rhea Cote Robbins. Examines their literature as Franco-American works, and as examples of "minor literatures" that offer a unique commentary on one's geography and "sense of place." -
The Heflingers and the Lamoures : A Microcosm of United States Social History from the 1850's through the 1950's
From Huggins: "This thesis traces the history of two immigrant families from the mid-1800's through the mid-1900's. The social and economic factors of Germany and French Québec are studied to determine reasons for the movement of people from these countries to the United States during the 1800's. Family histories are used to follow the author's ancestors from their arrival through the following one hundred years....The narrative style is used to record family stories and reactions to historical events. The major contribution of this thesis is its furthering of the understanding of the impact of these two immigrant groups on America. Also the assimilation of Germans and French Canadians into American society is demonstrated."Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Community: Customs and Social Life, Family, Genealogy, Germany, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Nonfiction -- Immigration, Nonfiction -- Social Sciences, Nonfiction -- Sociology, North Dakota, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Québec -
Aroostook Architect : The Life and Times of the Reverend Joseph S. Marcoux
Biographical history of a northern Maine Roman Catholic priest, Rev. Joseph S. Marcoux. Fr. Marcoux was the first pastor at St. Joseph's Parish in the town of Wallagrass, Maine, in Aroostook County. -
Labor Study of the Franco-American Community of Waterville, Maine, from 1890 to 1940
Study in labor history of the Franco-Americans in Waterville, Maine up to 1940. Includes author-conducted interviews. From Bernier: "The purpose of this study is not to undermine the importance of [successful Franco-American businessmen and professionals], but it is an attempt to account for the notable achievements of the working class Franco-Americans who contributed their labor, their votes, and their efforts to improve working conditions through striking evevn in the face of discrimination and financial insecurity. This group has been ignored in almost all the written accounts of Waterville, and this error must be rectified. The Franco-Americans--laborers, businessmen, and professionals, all contributed to the character and to the prosperity of Waterville." -
Aspects of Class Ideology in a New England Ethnic Minority : The Franco-Americans of Woonsocket, Rhode Island (1865-1929)
Dissertation on class development and distinction through North American industrialization, immigration, and urbanization in Rhode Island. The particularity of this history as shaped in the Franco American community's experience of Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Emphasis on Catholicism. Anctil's work is cited in American social historian Gary Gerstle's famous text, "Working-Class Americanism."Tags Business and Economics, Central Falls RI, Danielson CT, Emigration and Immigration, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Fall River MA, Holyoke MA, Labor History, Merrimack River Valley, Mills and Mill Work, Moosup CT, Natick RI, New Bedford MA, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, North Brookfield MA, North Easton CT, Pawtucket RI, Pawtuxet River Valley, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Plainfield CT, Providence RI, Quinebaug River Valley, Religion, Social History, Springfield MA, St. Lawrence River Valley, West Warwick RI, Woonsocket RI -
Normand Beaupré, militant de la résistance canadienne-française aux États-Unis
Un portrait autobiographique raconté par l'auteur franco-américain, Normand Beaupré, de Biddeford, Maine, sur sa profession, sa vie academique, et sa vocation comme écrivain de la langue française dans la Nouvelle-Angleterre. -
David Plante
Radio interview with author David Plante on the occasion of the publication of his novel, "ABC" (Pantheon, 2008). Discussions of Plante's literary engagement with ghosts; with the notions of suffering, belief, and grief; origin and "the ultimate"; and the role of family. Brief discussion of the Providence, Rhode Island Catholic parish cultural milieu of his upbringing. -
The Art of Fiction, No. 199
Interview with novelist and short story writer, Annie Proulx, about her life, her craft, and her thoughts on writing. Reflections on some of her past works, including the novels "Postcards" and "The Shipping News," as well as the story, "Brokeback Mountain." Her engagement with a wide range of settings and characters, with an emphasis on rural America. Interview conducted at her ranch home in Wyoming. -
My Uncle Louis
Autobiographical novel revisiting a boy's childhood in Ottawa and the colorful character of his armchair philosopher uncle, Louis LaFrance. When Uncle Louis's marriage troubles find him moving in with the narrator child and his two parents, the household fills with his love of women, wine, good food, poetry, and Canadian politics. From the author of "The Happy Time" and "Hello to Springtime." -
A Picaresque Revenant
Article on Québec emigrant writer, Rémi Tremblay, and the serialized novel based on his time as a Union soldier in the United States Civil War, "Un Revenant: épisode de la guerre de Sécession." Textual interpretations of Tremblay's perceptions of war, and insights to his fiction based on information gleaned from his autobiography, "Pierre qui roule: souvenirs d'un journaliste." Explorations of Tremblay's portrayal of French Canadian emigration to the US at the turn of the century, and his literary representation of what the author calls "a new Francophone vernacular" (380). -
Literatures of Exile and Return : Jack Kerouac and Quebec
Critical article exploring two of Jack Kerouac's novels - "Doctor Sax" and "Satori in Paris" - in a way that emphasizes the importance of Kerouac's "translingual" identity, cultural heritage, and his relationship to the diasporic history of the people of Québec and French Canada. How Québec literary scholarship has elevated Kerouac's prose to a level unmatched in the United States, where the author argues little attention has been paid to the influence of Kerouac's cultural and linguistic identity on his American writing. A comparative close-reading of Québec writer Jacques Poulin's novel, "Volkswagen Blues," and the various debts it owes to Kerouac. -
Siting memory in Normand Beaupré's Le petit mangeur de fleurs
Article on the role of memory in Biddeford, Maine author Normand Beaupré's recent autobiographical novel. How memories and the act of remembering of one's youth and childhood home help to build collective cultural identity among Franco American communities, and become building block's for the author's personal, literary identity. Critical reading of the author's use of the French language, and of the personal and cultural traits upon which his story focuses. -
Les interprètes du beau
Un ensemble de brèves présentations littéraires et d'études sur les vies et les ouevres de plusieurs écrivain(e)s - locales et internationales, anglophones et francohpones - qui ont eu un influence sur l'auteur. Des réactions à la traduction de "Evangeline" par l'auteur, Maurice Trottier, écrits par ses lecteurs. Composé en trois segments, sur ou par les personnes qui suivent:
Poètes versificateurs: Alice Lemieux Lévesque; Rosaire Dion-Lévesque, Louis Dantin; Emilie-Jeanne Sorson, Anny Ticx, Roger Erre, Henriette Brondani, Roger Forst, Alfred Jarry; Alfred Tennyson, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Poètes prosateurs: Antoine de Saint-Exupery; Henri d'Arles; Saint François de Sales
Interpretateurs: Rosaire Dion Lévesque; L'Illettré; Séraphin Marion; Rodolphe Laplante; Antoine Goulet; Pierre Courtines; René Herval -
La littérature franco-américaine : écrivains et écritures
Un livre d'essais critiques et biographiques sur la littérature franco-américane et ses créateurs. Certains extraits littéraires des œuvres littéraire d'auteurs franco-américains contemporains, en anglais et français. Présenté en deux parties; un préface de la rédactrice, Claire Quintal, Directrice de l'Institut Français, Collège de l'Assumption, Worcester Massachusetts.
Book of critical and biographical essays on historical Franco American writers and their works; literary excerpts from the prose and poetry of contemporary Franco American writers. Essays presented in French, with contemporary literary writings in both French and English. Presented in two parts, with a preface written by the editor, Claire Quintal, director of the French Institute at Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts.
Table des matières:
Première partie / Part One:
"Louis Dantin (1865-1945)," par Yves Garon, a.a.
"Les Franco-Américains et l'institution littéraire québécoise : le cas de Rémi Tremblay," par Régis Normandeau
"Will James, né Ernest Dufault - romancier du Far-Ouest," par Florence Tormey Blouin
"Camille Lessard-Bissonnette - à la recherche d'un féminisme franco-américain," par Janet-L. Shideler
"La littérature franco-américaine dans un Petit Canada de la Nouvelle Angleterre: Holyoke, Massachusetts," par Ernest-B. Guillet
"Rosaire Dion-Lévesque, fils d'expatriés," Michel Lapierre
"Au-delà de la route: l'identité franco-américaine de Jack Kerouac," par Robert-B. Perreault
Deuxième partie / Part Two:"Tsi Gars," by David Plante
"A Pearl of Great Price," by Gerard Robichaud
"Un Mot de Chez-Nous," par Normand-C. Dubé
"On Writing a Novel about Franco-Americans," by Richard L. Belair
"Ideas of Order in Little Canada," by Bill Tremblay
"Reading from a Work in Progress," by Jacquie Giasson Fuller
Notices biographiques / Biographical notes, by Claire QuintalTags Boston MA, California, Central Falls RI, Criticism and Review, Fiction and Literature, Holyoke MA, Journalism, Lewiston ME, Literary Works, Literary Works -- Criticism and History, Lowell MA, Montana, Montréal QC, Nashua NH, New England, New Mexico, New York NY, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Poetry, Providence RI, Québec, Religion, Southbridge MA, Van Buren ME, Worcester MA -
The Art of Fiction, No. 41
Transcript of 1968 interview with writer Jack Kerouac in his Florida home, shortly before his death in 1969. Conducted by three visitors - principally, poet Ted Berrigan - and with the participation of Jack's wife, Stella Kerouac. Part of a Paris Review series of author interviews, and featured in a Paris Review published anthology of other interviews with literary figures, Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, 4th series (1976), edited by George Plimpton. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2659470 -
Selected Letters , 1940-1956
Collection of selected correspondence between writer Jack Kerouac and family, friends, and other literary figures before 1956. Includes letters to and from William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg; to Kerouac's mother, Gabrielle Kerouac; Neal Cassady; Alfred Kazin; and many others. Contain references to early writings, travels, relationships, etc. Letters presented chronologically, annotated, and linked with editor commentary. Includes biographical chronology and editor introduction. -
Windblown World : The Journals of Jack Kerouac, 1947-1954
Edited selections from the personal, previously unpublished writings of writer Jack Kerouac, from 1947 to 1954. Daily thoughts and travel logs presented together with more formal musings. Contains two sections of personal journal entries and work logs corresponding with the writing of some of his earlier works, "The Town and the City" and "On the Road." Selected reprints of handwritten pages. Many selections dated. Introduced by the editor; presented with brief explanations of the names of people included in the journals. -
Selected Letters , 1957-1969
Collection of selected correspondence between writer Jack Kerouac and friends, other literary figures, and some family from 1957 to the author's death in 1969. Includes letters to William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg; Lawrence Ferlinghetti; Sterling Lord; Robert Giroux; and many others. References to publications, writings, travels, etc. Letters presented chronologically, annotated, and linked with editor commentary. Includes biographical chronology and editor introduction. -
Dirt
Storied reflections on the familial inheritance of an author's personal relationship with dirt. Cleaning habits, life lessons, and attitudes of the author's matriarchs toward the cleanliness of one's home and the neat order of oneself. How her confrontations and reminiscences over dirt appear at turning points in the author's life, and what these events have taught her about herself and her family. -
La langue est gardienne : Language and Identity in Franco-American Literature
Article exploring critically how contemporary Franco American authors use the French language in their works to signify Franco American ethnicity. Discussion and comparison of two works and their creators: Normand Beaupré's coming of age novel set in Biddeford, Maine, Le petit mangeur des fleurs; David Plante's recent memoir, American Ghosts, featuring prominently the parish of his hometown, Providence, Rhode Island. -
Safe in Heaven Dead : Interviews with Jack Kerouac
Short compilation of selected, transcribed segments of interviews conducted with Jack Kerouac between 1957 and 1969. Some of Kerouac's thoughts on ancestry, the Beat Generation, literature, his writing, Buddhism, Catholicism, family, and his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. Index of sources where interviews were originally printed. -
Fatherless and Dispossessed : Grace Metalious as a French‐Canadian Writer
Article profiling Manchester, New Hampshire native writer, Grace (de Repentigny) Metalious. Summary and analysis of her best-selling scandalous novel, "Peyton Place," her reportedly favorite novel, "The Tight White Collar," and her final work, "No Adam in Eden." The autobiographical turn of Metalious's writing and the elements of her personal and family lives that shaped her fiction. Featured in an edition of the Journal of Popular Culture entitled, "Canadian Women Writers." -
Barre, Vermont: An Annotated Bibliography
A descriptive bibliography of sources related to the history, politics, and peoples of Barre, Vermont. Divided into the following categories: Historical Sources, Politics and Business, Social Life and Organizations, Poets and Writers, Ethnic Sources, Church History, Schools, Transportation, Genealogy, Oral History, Audio-Visual, and Other. -
The Fragrance of Rose : The Cult of Woonsocket's 'Saint' Endures Despite Official Doubt
Report on famed Woonsocket, Rhode Island woman of Catholic piety, Marie Rose Ferron, and the faith community that developed around her during her short life and after her death in 1936. The alleged stigmatist whose shrines continue to exist; whose cult of believers lingers after she was denied sainthood, and still long after evidence has been amounted against the legitimacy of her healing powers and stigmatic wounds. -
The Lively Legacy of Blackie Langlais
Brief profile of Old Town, Maine native and recently deceased sculptor of Cushing, Maine, Bernard "Blackie" Langlais. Several photographs of his work, including one of the artist outside his home. -
Siting memory in Normand Beaupré's Le petit mangeur de fleurs
Article on the role of memory in Biddeford, Maine author Normand Beaupré's recent autobiographical novel. How memories and the act of remembering of one's youth and childhood home help to build collective cultural identity among Franco American communities, and become building block's for the author's personal, literary identity. Critical reading of the author's use of the French language, and of the personal and cultural traits upon which his story focuses. -
A New Order of Things : How the Textile Industry Transformed New England
General history of the textile industry and its workers in the towns and cities of New England. From early domestic and small-scale manufacturing in the 17th and 18th centuries, to weaving industries of the early 19th, to the massive riverside brick mill structures and labor forces that persisted into the later 20th century. Contains scholarship, oral histories, and many illustrations in painting and photograph of industrial-era settings, workers, and their manufacturing equipment. Written by former director of the American Textile History Museum and the Maine State Museum.Tags Alna ME, Andover MA, Androscoggin River Valley, Augusta ME, Berlin NH, Billerica MA, Blackstone River Valley, Braintree MA, Brunswick ME, Business and Economics, Chelmsford MA, Clinton MA, Dedham MA, Dover NH, Dracut MA, Dudley MA, Emigration and Immigration, England, Fall River MA, Gardiner ME, Gonic NH, Hallowell ME, Harrisville NH, Holden MA, Holyoke MA, Irish Americans, Kingston NH, Labor History, Laconia NH, Lawrence MA, Lewiston ME, Lincoln RI, Londonderry NH, Lovell ME, Lowell MA, Ludlow MA, Maine, Manchester NH, Manville RI, Massachusetts, Merrimack River Valley, Middlefield NY, Mills and Mill Work, Nashua NH, New Bedford MA, New England, Newburyport MA, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Pawtucket RI, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Portsmouth NH, Providence RI, Quequechan River Valley, Rhode Island, Rockville CT, Rowley MA, Saco ME, Salem MA, Salem NH, Sanford ME, Slatersville RI, Somersworth NH, South Waterford ME, Springvale ME, St. John River Valley, Taunton MA, Ware MA, Warren RI, Webster MA, Winthrop ME, Worcester MA, Yarmouth ME, York ME -
When We Were the Kennedys : A Memoir from Mexico, Maine
Memoir from Mexico, Maine native and author of fiction, Monica Wood. Recalls the period of the author's youth around the time of the sudden death of her father. Her family's experience of the loss of its breadwinner in the 1960s. The shape of her 1963 mill-centered community and the diversity of people who inhabited it; portraits of the power of religion and industry among people in the towns of Rumford and Mexico. President John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination - and the widowhood of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - recounted in light of the disruptive passing of the author's father earlier that same year. -
Memory Babe : A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac
Biography of Lowell, Massachusetts native, poet, and author, Jack Kerouac, widely known as a founding participant in the 20th century USA literary culture that came to be called the "Beat Movement," or the "Beat Generation." Kerouac's life from birth to early death; from Lowell, to New York, to San Francisco, to Denver, to Tampa and St. Petersburg, and back again. The cultural, interpersonal, and geographic contexts for his poetry and writings of autobiographical fiction. Anecdotes and aspects of his public and private lives, and where these lives changed and converged. Well-known for the biographer's extensive use of archival materials and interviews with Kerouac's contemporaries. -
Literatures of Exile and Return : Jack Kerouac and Quebec
Critical article exploring two of Jack Kerouac's novels - "Doctor Sax" and "Satori in Paris" - in a way that emphasizes the importance of Kerouac's "translingual" identity, cultural heritage, and his relationship to the diasporic history of the people of Québec and French Canada. How Québec literary scholarship has elevated Kerouac's prose to a level unmatched in the United States, where the author argues little attention has been paid to the influence of Kerouac's cultural and linguistic identity on his American writing. A comparative close-reading of Québec writer Jacques Poulin's novel, "Volkswagen Blues," and the various debts it owes to Kerouac. -
Journal d'un bibliophile
Témoignage autobiographique d'un homme à Manchester, New Hampshire et sa relation avec les livres. Son accumulation à vie de milles de livres de "Canadiana" et "Franco-Americana," et les histoires qui l'accompagnent, vers leur lieu de repos à l'Association Canado-Américaine. Sa vie comme collectionneur de livres. Comprend aussi des lettres et des articles de journaux relatifs à la Collection Lambert. Note: La Collection Lambert réside maintenant à Saint Anselm College à Manchester, New Hampshire. -
Becoming a Man : Half a Life Story
Autobiography and coming-out narrative of Paul Monette, an Andover, Massachusetts writer. Monette recounts twenty-five closeted years of alienation and invisibility, explorations of his sexual identity, and observations on the sexual prejudice and violences around him. Growing up working-class in Massachusetts; his ill younger brother; stints at prep-school and Yale in the 1960s; time spent in England; a return to Massachusetts. Written during the battle with AIDS that eventually claimed the author's life. Winner of the 1992 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Republished in 2004. -
A Picaresque Revenant
Article on Québec emigrant writer, Rémi Tremblay, and the serialized novel based on his time as a Union soldier in the United States Civil War, "Un Revenant: épisode de la guerre de Sécession." Textual interpretations of Tremblay's perceptions of war, and insights to his fiction based on information gleaned from his autobiography, "Pierre qui roule: souvenirs d'un journaliste." Explorations of Tremblay's portrayal of French Canadian emigration to the US at the turn of the century, and his literary representation of what the author calls "a new Francophone vernacular" (380). -
Don't Give Me No Lip : The Cultural and Religious Roots of Leo Durocher's Competitiveness
Infamous early 20th-century Major League Baseball player and manager, Leo Durocher, explored through the lens of his French Canadian Catholicism. How his various on- and off-field antics compare to his sociocultural situation on the margins of New York City immigrant Catholicism. His early support for Jackie Robinson and his later bigotry relative to popular knowledge about sportsmanship and integration during that time period. The West Springfield, Massachusetts native Durocher's unique competitive spirit in reflection of his cultural and religious roots. -
Working People in the Post-Industrial Age, 1961-Present
Article featuring selections of oral history interviews conducted with Rhode Island working people in the 1980s. Reflections on childhood in urban, industrial Rhode Island in the wake of industrial closures, changing demographic landscapes, and their impact on the state's collective identity. Stories of mill work in Pawtucket, the Narragansett Brewery, labor negotiations, the women's movement, and other social reform movements in Rhode Island in the 1960s and 1970s. Featured in Part Two of a Rhode Island History series entitled, "Working Lives: An Oral History of Rhode Island Labor."Tags Albion RI, Blackstone Valley RI, Central Falls RI, Emigration and Immigration, Gender and Sexuality, Government and Politics, Manville RI, Mills and Mill Work, Nonfiction, Nonfiction -- History -- Economic and Industrial, Nonfiction -- History -- Labor and Social, Pawtucket RI, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Rhode Island, Social History, United States, Youth -
A Parish Grows Around the Common : Notre-Dame-des-Canadiens, 1869-1995
History of the Roman Catholic parish of Notre-Dame-des-Canadiens (what became "Notre Dame/St. Joseph Parish") in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1869 to 1995. Presented chronologically according to the lives and service of parish pastors and the achievements of their parishioners. The role of this parish in Worcester, and its development intertwined with the change and growth of the city. Emphasis on the parish's Franco American community - its parish laity and leadership. Includes lists of pastors, associate pastors, and their terms of service at Notre-Dame-des-Canadiens; pastors and terms of services at St. Joseph, Holy Name of Jesus, and St. Anthony parishes; choir directors, organists, and concerts from 1869 to 1995. -
My Uncle Louis
Autobiographical novel revisiting a boy's childhood in Ottawa and the colorful character of his armchair philosopher uncle, Louis LaFrance. When Uncle Louis's marriage troubles find him moving in with the narrator child and his two parents, the household fills with his love of women, wine, good food, poetry, and Canadian politics. From the author of "The Happy Time" and "Hello to Springtime." -
The Search for Generational Memory
Essay describing the popularity of American search efforts for "generational memory" - or the shape of one's personal and social origins - through genealogy, oral history, and the new social history movement of the middle twentieth century. Uses the example of Alex Haley's 1976 book, "Roots," as an influence on such popular efforts, and an instance of American historical and cultural identity-searching whose precedents can be traced to the beginning of the twentieth century. Exposition on the craft of oral history and the type of knowledge it generates. Written by the author of "Amoskeag: Life and Work in an American Factory-City" (1978), which focuses on the Amoskeag Mills of Manchester, New Hampshire and its workers. -
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David Plante
Radio interview with author David Plante on the occasion of the publication of his novel, "ABC" (Pantheon, 2008). Discussions of Plante's literary engagement with ghosts; with the notions of suffering, belief, and grief; origin and "the ultimate"; and the role of family. Brief discussion of the Providence, Rhode Island Catholic parish cultural milieu of his upbringing. -
The Voice Is All : The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac
Biographical portrait of Jack Kerouac, with uniquely heavy emphasis on the suggested influence of his French Canadian heritage - and the French language - on the style and content of his creative works. Written by a Kerouac contemporary and former friend. Covers from Kerouac's early life and those of his parents, to 1951, shortly after the publication of his first novel, The Town and the City. -
The Catholicism of Jack Kerouac
Observations of Jack Kerouac's ethnoreligious background - Franco American and Roman Catholic - and what the author describes as one of three "panels of the survivance triptych" : Catholicism. Historical descriptions of the role and actions of the Roman Catholic Church in historic New France, French Canada, Québec, and later in Franco American communities like Kerouac's Lowell, Massachusetts. Franco Catholicism's Jansenist and Manichean tendencies as rooted in early French North American history. Kerouac's early devotion and later rebellion from Catholic practice, with an ever persistent reflection of and fascincation with select observably Catholic conditions and attitudes, including the themes of guilt and suffering apparent in his recorded life and works. Shades of Catholicism in "Beat Movement" mystical and anti-material mores, and intersections with Kerouac's attentions to Buddhism. Selected revelations of Kerouac's interior life, sexual life, and moral concerns as found in his literature and in select quotation. -
A Translator's Journey : A Retrospective
Personal observations of a Franco American author and psychotherapist on his French-to-English translation of "Body Psychotherapy: History, Concepts, and Methods" by Michael Heller. Confronting the prospect of a translation project; re encountering the "long dormant French language" of his youth; configuring and reacquainting his body to speaking in French. -
Bird Cloud : A Memoir
Narrative of the discovery and inhabiting of the author's homestead along Wyoming's North Platte River. Memoirs from the author's youth and family life, relatives, their cultures and their mobility. Her youth across New England. Historical, archaeological, and genealogical portraits of her family, her various regions, and their people woven throughout. Vivid descriptions of natural life in the rural United States that add to several chapters on the processes of architecting, building, and getting acquainted with her Wyoming home - Bird Cloud - and its own histories. From the author of "The Shipping News," "Accordion Crimes," and several other notable works of fiction.Tags Acculturation and Assimilation, Art and Architecture, Connecticut, Ethnicity and Collective Identity, Family, Genealogy, Geography, Maine, Montréal QC, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Personal History: Biography and Oral History, Rhode Island, Saratoga WY, Travel and Movement, Vermont, Willimantic CT, Wyoming -
Spoons' Spoons : The Life and Times of Theodore Edouard "Spoons" Michaud
Biography of Eddie "Spoons" Michaud, renowned musician from Old Town, Maine. Stories of his life, times, family, and friends from 1923 to the present. Includes black and white photographs of Michaud throughout his life, both with and without his namesake instrument - the spoons - as well as select representations of maps of Maine towns. -
Inside, Looking Out
Memoir of famed television soap opera writer and playwright, Harding Lemay. From his tumultuous early youth - one of thirteen children - on a New York farm along the Canadian border, to his lonely escape to New York City at the age of 17 and the friends who find him there. His later military training and participation in World War II in Europe. Back to Manhattan to one failed and one successful marriage, and to live and work among books: in libraries, with publishing executives, and finally as a writer. His persistent love of books and struggles with language. -
Disobedient Ancestors
Personal and historical essay weaving a son's reflections on his Québec-born, rebellious, itinerant father through the changing shape of Catholicism in New France, Lower Canada, and Québec into the 21st century. The persistent grip of a longtime North American family's roots. His father's formative youth and later hatred of clergy, their tenuous relationship, the power of cultural narrative, and the shapes that one's departing quests from them can take. -
Normand Beaupré, militant de la résistance canadienne-française aux États-Unis
Un portrait autobiographique raconté par l'auteur franco-américain, Normand Beaupré, de Biddeford, Maine, sur sa profession, sa vie academique, et sa vocation comme écrivain de la langue française dans la Nouvelle-Angleterre.