Guy Frégault (June 16, 1918 – December 13, 1977) was a Canadian historian and writer from Quebec.
He worked at the history department of Montreal University.
Biography
Frégault was born in Montreal on June 16, 1918. He lived his childhood and adolescence in Hochelaga, a working-class neighborhood of East Montreal. In 1937, he began publishing his first articles in L'Action nationale and La Relève. He studied at the Saint-Laurent College and, later, the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf. He soon enrolled in the Faculty of Arts at the Université de Montréal, becoming a Bachelor of Arts in May, 1940.
In the beginning, nothing special predisposed Frégault to becoming one of the first "professional" historians of Quebec; on the contrary, he had devoted himself to teaching Greek, studying at the École normale supérieure in Paris funded by the patronage of Bishop Émile Chartier, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Vice-Rector of the Université de Montréal. Chartier had been very impressed with Frégault's excellent academic record, so Chartier assured him, on Frégault's return from Paris, of his success to the profession of Greek. This program was about to end when the Second World War ruined his plans, along with the plans of many other young intellectuals also looking to stay in Europe. In 1937, his patriotic concerns led him to contacting Lionel Groulx, who, after having carefully read his plan for the Révolution de l'Ordre laurentien (Revolution of the Laurentian Order), was "immediately interested in him." In 1940, when hostilities became far more serious, remaining in France remained increasingly improbable.
Groulx began to see Frégault as a possible successor. Groulx offered that Frégault studies in the Loyola University Chicago under the direction of Jean Delanglez. However, while Chartier wanted to make him a Classicist, Groulx tried to interest him with history. These prestigious offers give us a glimpse of the talent his contemporaries recognized in him (but they didn't fail to deeply embarrass him). In the end, the capitulation of France in June, 1940, was what decided his final choice of career. When Paris surrendered, Frégault had no choice but to accept Groulx's offer and go to study as a historian in the United States. As Groulx was looking for a successor, he spares Frégault a training stay in the United States to avoid what he experienced himself, "the chore of improvisation in a profession where one does not improvise."
Upon his arrival at Loyola University Chicago, Frégault had no research subject. Father Delanglez, who was to be his advisor, offered him a spot at "The quarry of Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville". Delanglez would come to strongly influence Frégault. At first, he was a little disconcerted by the learning required as a historian, but he quickly adjusted and completed his studies at a fast pace. In June, 1942, just 18 months after his arrival in Chicago, he began writing his doctoral thesis, entitled Iberville the Conqueror, which was published in 1944.
In the fall of 1943, Frégault inaugurated the first historical methodology course that had ever been offered in a Quebec university and, at the same time, introduced the practice of history seminars while teaching a course on the public institutions of New France. Chartier, who was asked to appoint his successors for the seven positions he held at Université de Montréal on June 24, 1944, entrusted Frégault with Canadian literature. At the same time, also thanks to Chartier (who had a long-standing relationship with Grolier), Frégault became one of the principle contributors to the French-Canadian of its encyclopedia, which began to appear in 1947. At the creation of the Institut d'histoire (Institute of History), Robert Rumilly took over from Frégault at Grolier. A few months after the publication of Iberville the Conqueror—a book through which he would become the first winner of the Duvernay Award of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society of Montreal—he published The Civilization of New France. The close publication of the two works earned him a solid reputation as a historian as early as 1944.
In 1945, aged 26, Frégault became a founding member of the Académie des lettres du Québec and received the Vermeil Medal from the Société historique de Montréal (Montreal Historical Society). In 1947, he was the first recipient of the prix David, which he was awarded for Iberville the Conqueror and The Civilization of New France. From September, 1946, to May, 1947, he was the director of L'Action nationale.