Emile Nelligan
Émile Nelligan was a notable Canadian poet born in 1879 in Montreal to an Irish father and a French Canadian mother. His upbringing was marked by familial tension, which influenced his artistic sensibilities. Nelligan received his education at various institutions, including the Collège Sainte-Marie, where he was inspired by literary figures such as Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as the music of Frederic Chopin. He began publishing poetry in 1896, initially under the pseudonym Emile Kovar, and soon gained recognition within the literary community of Montreal.
Despite early success, including a celebrated public reading in 1899, Nelligan's life took a tragic turn when he suffered a mental breakdown just before his twentieth birthday, leading to his commitment to an asylum for 25 years. Although he continued to write during his confinement, he could not recapture the brilliance of his youth. Nelligan's work, comprising around 170 poems filled with themes of sadness and introspection, was posthumously collected, with significant translations emerging in the mid-20th century. He passed away on November 18, 1941, in a hospital, leaving behind a legacy that highlights the fragility of artistic genius and the impact of mental health on creativity.
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Emile Nelligan
- Born: December 24, 1879
- Birthplace: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Died: November 18, 1941
- Place of death: Saint-Jean-de-Dieu Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Biography
Canadian poet Emile Nelligan was born in 1879 in Montreal, the son of David Nelligan and Émilie-Amanda Hudon, spouses in a strained relationship. David Nelligan, an Irish immigrant, was a postal inspector and was frequently away from home and Émilie-Amanda Hudon, a French Canadian woman, took great pride in her culture, while her husband had little interest in or respect for her heritage. The family spent summers in Cacouna, Quebec, but except for those trips and one brief venture in Europe, Nelligan lived his entire life in Montreal.
He was educated at École Olier and the Petit Séminaire de Montréal, and he enrolled in the Collège Sainte-Marie in 1896. Having been moved by such writers as Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire, and Edgar Allan Poe, and by the music of Frederic Chopin early in life, Nelligan focused more on his study and composition of poetry than he did on his college studies. His first published poem, Rêve fantastique, appeared on June 13, 1896, in Le Samedi under the pseudonym of Emile Kovar. Eight more poems appeared in periodicals that year and the following year, Nelligan began publishing under his own name. He left school in 1897 to focus on his poetry, joining the École littéraire de Montréal, a community of young writers and intellectuals, at the invitation of his friend Arthur du Bussières.
In 1898, perhaps at his father’s instruction, Nelligan embarked on a voyage to Liverpool and Belfast as one of the ship’s hired sailors. When he returned home later in the year, he grudgingly took up work as a bookkeeper. The École littéraire de Montréal met publicly for the first time on December 28, 1898, and Nelligan presented three of his poems. Beginning work on a collection of poems, Nelligan continued to publish poetry in various newspapers and journals, including Le Monde illustré, L’Alliance nationale,and Le Petit Messager du Très Saint-Sacrement. A public reading on May 26, 1899, of his poem “La Romance du vin” was well received by an ecstatic crowd, but it turned out to be Nelligan’s final public appearance. Less than three months later, just a few months short of his twentieth birthday, Nelligan suffered a breakdown and was committed to the Saint- Benoît asylum for twenty-five years before being transferred to the Saint-Jean-de-Dieu Hospital, where he lived out the remainder of his life. He died in the hospital on November 18, 1941.
Between age sixteen and nineteen, Nelligan composed roughly 170 lyric poems and songs characterized by sadness, sensitivity, and introspection. Although he continued to write during his confinement, he was never again able to tap into the stability and talent of his early years. His poems were collected in 1904, and many were translated into English for the first time in 1960 by P. F. Widdows. Fred Cogswell translated Nelligan’s complete oeuvre into English in 1983.