Arthur de Bussières
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arthur de Bussières | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Arthur Bussières January 20, 1877 |
| Died | May 7, 1913 (aged 36) |
| Known for | poetry |
| Notable work | Les Bengalis |
| Movement | École littéraire de Montréal |
Arthur de Bussières (January 20, 1877 – May 7, 1913) was a Canadian poet from Montreal, Quebec.[1]
He was born in Montreal in 1877 to a poor family. There is evidence that his birth name was Arthur Bussières, and that the nobiliary particle "de" was later added as a pen name.[2] He joined the École littéraire de Montréal in 1896 and became a close friend of Émile Nelligan, Charles Gill, Henry Desjardins, Albert Lozeau and Joseph Melançon.
Several of his early poems were published in anthologies edited by Louis Dantin,[1] and later in journals including Le Monde illustré, Le Passe-Temps, L'Avenir, L'Étudiant, La Revue populaire, Les Débats, L'Alliance nationale and Anthologie des poètes canadiens.[3] His writing style was generally labelled as Parnassian, and as most strongly influenced by José-Maria de Heredia.[4] He supported himself primarily as a house painter, according to official sources; after Nelligan was committed to an insane asylum in 1899, Bussières virtually disappeared from the École littéraire, and published only a very small amount of work in the next decade until reemerging in 1910.[5]
He had not published a standalone poetry collection as of 1913, when he died of appendicitis at age 36; the collection Les Bengalis, comprising all of his surviving poetry, was posthumously published in 1931.[1]
