Editing Gabrielle Roy

{{Short description|20th-century Canadian author}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name        = Gabrielle Roy
| image       = Gabrielle Roy 1945.jpg
| caption     = Gabrielle Roy, 1945
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1909|3|22}}
| birth_place = [[Saint Boniface, Winnipeg|Saint Boniface]], [[Manitoba]], Canada
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1983|7|13|1909|3|22}}
| death_place = [[Quebec City]], [[Quebec]], Canada
| occupation  = Novelist, teacher
| language = [[French language|French]]
| pseudonym   =
| genre       = [[Canadian literature]]<br />[[Children's literature]]
| movement    = CanLit<br />[[Feminism]]
| notableworks = {{plainlist|
*''[[The Tin Flute]]''
*''[[Street of Riches]]''
*''[[The Fragile Lights of Earth]]''
*''[[Children of My Heart]]''
}}
| influences  =
| influenced  =
| website     =
}}

'''Gabrielle Roy''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|CC|FRSC}} ({{IPA|fr|ɡabʁijɛl ʁwa}}; March 22, 1909{{spnd}}July 13, 1983) was a Canadian author from [[St. Boniface, Manitoba]] and one of the major figures in French Canadian literature.

==Early life==
Roy was born in 1909 in [[Saint Boniface, Winnipeg|Saint-Boniface]] (now part of [[Winnipeg]]), [[Manitoba]], and was educated at the Académie Saint-Joseph.<ref name="Government of Manitoba">{{cite web |title=Manitoba Heritage Council Commemorative Plaques: Gabrielle Roy (1909-1983) |url=https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/plaques/plaq1029.html |website=gov.mb.ca |publisher=Government of Manitoba}}</ref><ref name="canadianencyclopedia">{{cite web |last1=Baird |first1=Daniel |title=Gabrielle Roy |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gabrielle-roy |website=thecanadianencyclopedia.ca |date=10 April 2008}}</ref> She was born into a family of eleven children and reportedly began to write at an early age.<ref name="canadianencyclopedia" /> She lived on rue Deschambault, a house and neighbourhood in [[St. Boniface, Manitoba|Saint-Boniface]] that would later inspire one of her most famous works. The house is now a National Historic Site and museum in Winnipeg.<ref>{{cite web |title=Manitoba Provincial Heritage Site No. 111 |url=https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/prov/p111.html |website=gov.mb.ca |publisher=Government of Manitoba}}</ref>

== Career ==
After training as a teacher at The Winnipeg Normal School, she taught in rural schools in [[Marchand, Manitoba|Marchand]] and [[Cardinal, Manitoba|Cardinal]] and was then appointed to the Institut Collégial Provencher in Saint Boniface.<ref>{{Cite DCB|last=Ricard|first=François|title=Gabrielle Roy|volume=21|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/roy_gabrielle_21E.html}}</ref>

With her savings she was able to spend some time in Europe, but was forced to return to Canada in 1939 at the outbreak of [[World War II]]. She returned with some of her works near completion, but settled in [[Quebec]] to earn a living as a sketch artist while continuing to write.

[[File:Feature. St. Henri - Gabrielle Roy and Boys of St. Henri BAnQ P48S1P11917.jpg|thumbnail|left|Gabrielle Roy in 1945 with children from [[Saint-Henri, Montreal|Saint-Henri]], the working-class neighbourhood of Montreal.]]

Her first novel, ''Bonheur d'occasion'' (1945),<ref>''Bonheur d'occasion'', Boréal Compact, Éditions du Boréal, 1993. {{ISBN|2-89052-575-9}}</ref> gave a starkly realistic portrait of the lives of people in [[Saint-Henri, Montreal|Saint-Henri]], a working-class neighbourhood of [[Montreal]]. The novel caused many [[Demographics of Quebec|Quebec]]kers to take a hard look at themselves, and is regarded as the novel that helped lay the foundation for Quebec's [[Quiet Revolution]] of the 1960s.<ref name="Schellinger">{{cite book |last1=Schellinger |first1=Paul |title=Encyclopedia of the Novel |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135918262 |page=1336 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FPdRAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1336}}</ref> The original French version won her the prestigious Prix Femina in 1947.<ref name="Schellinger" /> Published in English as ''[[The Tin Flute]]'' (1947),<ref>''The Tin Flute'', translated by Alan Brown, New Canadian Library, McClelland & Stewart, 1989. {{ISBN|0-7710-9860-X}}</ref> the book won the 1947 [[Governor General's Award]] for fiction as well as the [[Royal Society of Canada]]'s [[Lorne Pierce Medal]].<ref name="Schellinger" /> Distributed in the United States, where it sold more than three-quarters of a million copies, the [[Literary Guild|Literary Guild of America]] made ''The Tin Flute'' a feature book of the month in 1947.<ref name="Schellinger" /><ref name="Robbinsetal">{{cite book |editor1-last=Robbins |editor1-first=Wendy |editor2-last=Luxton |editor2-first=Meg |editor3-last=Eichler |editor3-first=Margrit |editor4-last=Descarries |editor4-first=Francine |title=Minds of Our Own: Inventing Feminist Scholarship and Women's Studies in Canada and Québec, 1966–76 |date=2009 |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press |isbn=9781554587742 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i9jfAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA14}}</ref> The book garnered so much attention that Roy returned to Manitoba to escape the publicity.

There are two French versions of ''Bonheur d'occasion''. The first was published in 1945 by Société des Éditions Pascal in two volumes.<ref name="dictionary">{{cite web |title=Gabrielle Roy |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/roy_gabrielle_21E.html |website=biographi.ca |publisher=Dictionary of Canadian Biography}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Bonheur d'occasion. |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/48000864/ |website=loc.gov |publisher=Library of Congress}}</ref> This version was translated in 1947 by [[Hannah Josephson]], who removed several short passages from the English version. In 1965, Librairie Beauchemin published an abridged French version eliminating a number of passages. This second version was translated by [[Alan Brown (translator)|Alan Brown]] in 1980. As a result, there has never been an unabridged version of ''The Tin Flute'' published in English.

In August 1947, she married Marcel Carbotte, a Saint Boniface doctor, and the couple set off for Europe where Carbotte studied [[gynecology]] and Roy spent her time writing.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gaffney |first1=Kathleen J. |title=The Novelist and the Nun: Two Sisters, One Bond |url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4173&context=gc_etds |website=academicworks.cuny.edu |publisher=City University of New York |page=10 |date=2019}}</ref>

''Where Nests the Water Hen'', Gabrielle Roy's second novel, is a sensitive and sympathetic tale that captures both the innocence and the vitality of a sparsely populated frontier.

Another of her novels brought additional critical acclaim. ''Alexandre Chenevert'' (1954), is a dark and emotional story that is ranked as one of the most significant works of psychological [[Literary realism|realism]] in the history of [[Canadian literature]].

She is considered by many to be one of the most important [[Francophone]] writers in Canadian history and one of the most influential Canadian authors. In 1963, she was on a panel that gave the Montreal World's Fair, [[Expo 67]], its theme: ''[[Expo 67#Montebello conference produces theme|Terre des hommes]]'' or in English ''Man and His World''. It was her suggestion to use [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]'s [[Wind, Sand and Stars|1939 book title]] as the organizing theme. In 2016, [[Margaret Atwood]], who had read her books as a teenager, wrote an essay about her career, and noted that her works were still more relevant than ever.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Legacy: How French Canadians shaped North America|publisher=Signal|year=2019|isbn=978-0-7710-7239-0|pages=233–256}} (also in French: ''Bâtisseurs d'Amérique. Des canadiens français qui ont faite de l'histoire.'' La Presse, Montréal 2016, p 29-60)</ref>

Gabrielle Roy died in 1983 at the age of seventy-four.<ref name="canadianencyclopedia" /> Her autobiography, ''La Détresse et l'enchantement'', was published posthumously and translated in 1984 by [[Patricia Claxton]], a prominent Quebec translator who is considered the primary translator of Gabrielle Roy's works from French to English. Her translation of Gabrielle Roy's autobiography, translated into English as ''Enchantment and Sorrow'' was awarded the [[Governor General's Award for French to English translation|Governor General's Award]] in 1987. The autobiography covers the years from Gabrielle Roy's childhood in Manitoba to the time when she settled in Quebec. 

The movie ''[[Tramp at the Door]]'', based on Roy's short story and released in 1985, was dedicated to her memory.<ref name=cuff>John Haslett Cuff, "CBC dramatization of Gabrielle Roy story; Tramp takes the safe route". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', January 1, 1987.</ref>

Patricia Claxton won her second Governor General's Award in 1999 for translating [[François Ricard]]'s biography of Gabrielle Roy.

==Awards and recognition==
[[Image:Image-Québec, Bibliothèque Gabrielle-Roy2.jpg|thumb|250px|alt=|The central branch of the public library system of [[Quebec City]], the ''Bibliothèque Gabrielle Roy'']]
* 1946&nbsp;– La Médaille de l'académie des lettres du Québec
* 1947&nbsp;– Prix Femina for ''Bonheur d'occasion'' (''The Tin Flute'')
* 1947&nbsp;– Governor General's Award for Fiction for ''The Tin Flute''
* 1947&nbsp;– Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Peace Medal for ''The Tin Flute''
* 1967&nbsp;– [[Companion of the Order of Canada]]
* 1979&nbsp;– ''Courte-Queue'', book design and illustrations by François Olivier, was awarded the Canada Council Children's Literature Prize (translated by Alan Brown in 1980 as ''Cliptail'').
* 2004&nbsp;– On September 29, 2004, the [[Bank of Canada]] issued a [[Canadian twenty-dollar bill|$20 bank note]] in the [[Canadian Journey Series]] which included a quotation from her 1961 book ''[[The Hidden Mountain]]'' (''La Montagne secrète''), and its English translation by Harry Binsse.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/promo_art.pdf|title=The Art and Design of Canadian Bank Notes|publisher=Bank of Canada|date=6 December 2006|page=110|isbn=0660632462}}</ref>
* 2007&nbsp;– ''[[Children of My Heart]]'' was selected for the 2007 edition of ''[[Canada Reads]]''

She won the [[Governor General's Award]] three times, the Prix David twice, the Prix Duvernay and the Molson Prize.

The National Library of Canada (now [[Library and Archives Canada]]) has preserved a collection of her materials covering the years 1940 to 1983, including manuscripts, typescripts, galleys of published and unpublished works such as ''La Rivière sans repos'', ''Cet été qui chantait'', ''Un jardin au bout du monde'', ''Ces enfants de ma vie'', and ''La Détresse et l'enchantement'', as well as business and personal correspondence, business records, and memorabilia.

==Schools and a campus named in her honour==
* [[École/Collège régional Gabrielle-Roy]], a French-language combined elementary and high school in Île-des-Chênes, Manitoba, Canada
* [[École élémentaire publique Gabrielle-Roy]], a French-language elementary school in Gloucester, Ontario, Canada
* [[École Gabrielle-Roy (Toronto)|École Gabrielle-Roy]], a French-language elementary school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
* [[École Gabrielle-Roy (Surrey)|École Gabrielle-Roy]], a French-language combined elementary and high school in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
* [[École publique Gabrielle-Roy]], a Francophone K-12 school in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
* Gabrielle-Roy, the main campus of [[CEGEP de l'Outaouais]], a French-language CEGEP (provincial college) in the Province of Québec
* [[École Gabrielle Roy]], a Francophone middle school (gr. 7–8) in Chateauguay, Quebec, Canada

==Selected writings==
{{Library resources box|by=yes|viaf=32002395}}
*''[[The Tin Flute]]'' (''Bonheur d'occasion'') (1945)
*''[[Where Nests the Water Hen]]'' (''La Petite Poule d'Eau'') (1950)
*''[[The Cashier]]'' (''Alexandre Chenevert'') (1954)
*''[[Street of Riches]]'' (''Rue Deschambault'') (1955)
*''[[The Hidden Mountain]]'' (''La Montagne secrète'') (1961)
*''[[The Road Past Altamont]]'' (''La Route d'Altamont'') (1966), transl. [[Joyce Marshall]] (1913–2005)
*''[[Windflower (novel)|Windflower]]'' (''La Rivière sans repos'') (1970), transl. Joyce Marshall 
*''[[Enchanted Summer]]'' (''Cet été qui chantait'') (1972), transl. Joyce Marshall
*''[[Garden in the Wind]]'' (''Un jardin au bout du monde'') (1975)
*''[[My Cow Bossie]]'' (''Ma vache Bossie'') (1976)
*''[[Children of My Heart]]'' (''Ces Enfants de ma vie'') (1977)
*''[[The Fragile Lights of Earth]]'' (''Fragiles lumières de la Terre'') (1978)
*''[[Cliptail]]'' (''Courte-Queue'') (1979)
*''[[Enchantment and Sorrow]]'' (''La Détresse et l'enchantement'') (1984)
*''[[The Tortoiseshell and the Pekinese]]'' (''L'Espagnole et la Pékinoise'') (1987)

==See also==
* [[La Maison Gabrielle Roy]] (or "The House of Gabrielle Roy") is a museum in the childhood home of Gabrielle Roy (in St. Boniface / Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7991 Biography] in  ''[[Dictionary of Canadian Biography]]'' online (biographi.ca)
* [https://archive.today/20070311073745/http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=2275 Order of Canada Citation]
* [http://www.cbc.ca/wordsatlarge/features/feature.php?storyId=227 Excerpt from ''Children of My Heart''] at CBC Words at Large
* [https://www.bankofcanadamuseum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2004-20-dollar-verso_David-Dodge-1200x400.jpg Bank of Canada – Canadian Journey Series, 2004, $20, back: text from "La Montagne secrète"]
* [http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/biography/biographi231e.shtml Gabrielle Roy exhibit] at the [[Canadian Museum of History]]
* [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gabrielle-roy Gabrielle Roy] in [[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110608071153/http://www.yementimes.com/defaultdet.aspx?SUB_ID=24642 Gabrielle Roy: An English Canadians' Favorite French Canadian] 
* Illustrer les textes pour enfants écrits par Gabrielle Roy in Cahiers Franco-Canadiens de l'Ouest Vol. 16, Nos 1–2, 2005, p.&nbsp;75-116 [https://web.archive.org/web/20110613194944/http://www.ustboniface.mb.ca/cusb//cahiersfco/v17textes/v17duguay.pdf]
* {{LCAuth|n80040268|Gabrielle Roy|57|ue}}
* [http://hyperroy.nt2.uqam.ca/ Roy: du manuscript au virtuel], named "Hyperroy", at [[UQAM]]
* (French) [http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=3672693&lang=eng Fonds Gabrielle Roy et Marcel Carbotte (R11800)] at [[Library and Archives Canada]]
* (French) [http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=3672665&lang=eng Fonds Gabrielle Roy (R11799)] at [[Library and Archives Canada]]

{{Antoine de Saint-Exupéry}}
{{Governor General's English fiction}}
{{Prix Femina}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Gabrielle}}
[[Category:1909 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian novelists]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of Canada]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada]]
[[Category:Franco-Manitoban people]]
[[Category:Governor General's Award–winning fiction writers]]
[[Category:People from St. Boniface, Winnipeg]]
[[Category:Prix Femina winners]]
[[Category:Writers from Winnipeg]]
[[Category:Writers from Quebec]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:Prix Athanase-David winners]]
[[Category:Canadian women novelists]]
[[Category:Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian women writers]]
[[Category:Canadian novelists in French]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Canadian women non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Canadian autobiographers]]
[[Category:Canadian women autobiographers]]
[[Category:Canadian non-fiction writers in French]]
[[Category:20th-century letter writers]]