The Modern Novel

Biography

Hubert Aquin was born in Montreal in 1929. He studied under the Jesuits and then read philosophy at the University of Montreal. He spent three years at the l’Institut d’études politiques in Paris before returning to Montreal where he worked first for Radio Canada and then the Canadian Film Board. He started working for the Montreal Stock Exchange while at the same time, working for Quebec independence. He was arrested for possessing an illegal weapon and sentenced to prison, where he wrote Prochain épisode (Next Episode). After his release, he had increasing conflicts with the law. He was expelled from Switzerland (at the intervention of the Canadian police, he claimed) and split off from the main Quebec independence movement, which he felt was not radical enough. He continued to publish novels and verse, taught literature at various universities and became literary direction of Editions la Presse from which he resigned eighteen months later, accusing the managing editor of being an agent of the colonial power. The following year – 1977 – he killed himself, saying that everything is now finished.

Other links

Hubert Aquin
Hubert Aquin
Hubert Aquin
Difficulty and Revolution (about Aquin)
Hubert Aquin (in French)
Hubert Aquin (in French)