Amérique française

Amérique française

Amérique française, magazine founded 1941 by former Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf students led by Pierre Baillargeon, following Collège publications by François Hertel and his colleagues. The magazine accurately reflected the artistic ideals of a certain Québec intellectual elite. Its contributors, worried about the future of letters and culture in Québec, worked for the recognition of French culture in America. The magazine covered the various arts, but favoured literature. Its goal was to promote the growing French Canadian writing movement.

The magazine lost some of its dynamism in 1945, when Gérard Dagenais, the new director, broadened its scope to include social and economic issues. The result lacked a coherent guiding philosophy and attracted few readers. In 1947 Hertel left the magazine to Corine Dupuis-Maillet, who tried unsuccessfully to turn Amérique française into a prestigious literary review. Her daughter, Andrée Maillet, took over in 1951 and devoted the magazine almost entirely to new writing until its demise in 1955. It had published 4-12 issues every year since 1941. A number of authors made their first appearance in its pages, including Jacques Ferron and Anne Hébert. In 1963 Maillet relaunched the magazine, but only one issue appeared.

See also Literary Periodicals in French.