Phillipe-Ignace François Aubert de Gaspé

Who was Phillipe-Ignace François Aubert de Gaspé?

Philippe-Ignace-Francois Aubert de Gaspé, or simply Philippe Aubert de Gaspé was a Canadian writer and is credited with writing the first French Canadian novel.

Philippe-Ignace-Francois was tutored by his father Philippe-Joseph and studied at the seminary of Nicolet. He worked as a journalist at the Quebec Mercury and Le Canadien. He was sentenced to a month in prison in November 1835 after clashing with Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, who had questioned his integrity. In February of the following year he unleashed a stink bomb of asafoetida at the National Assembly of Quebec.

While lying-low at his father's house he began writing his novel L'influence d'un livre. The story is made up of various fictionalised historical events, legends and folksongs which show the influence of father's recollections. Despite now being recognised as a major landmark in Canadian literature the book was not well received and Philippe died shortly afterwards in Halifax where he was buried in front of the present-day Spring Garden Road Public Library.