Gérin-Lajoie, Antoine

Gérin-Lajoie, Antoine (äNtwän` zhārăN`-läzhwä`), 1824–82, French Canadian author and journalist, b. Quebec prov. After serving as an editor (1845–52) on the Minerve, a Montreal newspaper, he entered government employment and spent the later part of his life as assistant librarian of Parliament. He also founded two short-lived literary magazines, Les Soirées canadiennes and Le Foyer canadien. His most popular works, the two novels Jean Rivard le défrieheur (1874) and Jean Rivard l'économiste (1876), idealize the simple life of rural French Canadians. He also wrote Dix Ans au Canada, de 1840 à 1850, a history of the government in that crucial time.