François Ricard, publisher, essayist, professor of literature and great specialist in the work of Gabrielle Roy, is no more.
Posted at 1:19 p.m.
Updated at 4:14 p.m.
The announcement was made on Friday afternoon by Éditions du Boréal, with which Mr. Ricard had been associated since 1983. He directed the Papers glued collection there.
“François was one of our great intellectuals in the city, told us Pascal Assathiany, general manager of Boréal. He was one of those intellectuals who do not stay in their ivory tower. They are rather in the public space. They make books. They were journalists. They are interested in history and watch society. And they pass on a taste for literature to young people. »
Joined by The Press, novelist and filmmaker Jacques Godbout, who was president of Boréal until last year, said: “He had remarkable intelligence. An understanding of the texts. He knew how to read, analyze, understand, explain. Which made him, probably, a very good teacher. I saw how he reacted to manuscripts and if he worked the same way in class, it must have been quite extraordinary. »
François Ricard was born on June 4, 1947 in Shawinigan. He studied at McGill University before going to do a doctorate in literature at the University of Aix-en-Provence in 1971.
Upon his return to Quebec, he taught French and Quebec literature at McGill University.
Author of several essays such as literature against itself (1985) and The lyrical generation (1992), M. Ricard marked the literary world with his biography Gabrielle Roy, a lifereleased in 1996. The book was commissioned by the Manitoba-born author who died in 1983.
“At the head of the Gabrielle-Roy Fund, he played a very important role in the preservation and dissemination of the work of the great novelist. He had been chosen by Milan Kundera to produce the prefaces for the reissues of all of his works, including in the prestigious collection of La Pléiade, ”we read in the press release from Boréal.
Regarding Kundera, Jacques Godbout recalls the circumstances that led Ricard to immerse himself in the work of the Czechoslovakian writer in the early 1970s. “Kundera passed through Montreal before settling in France. We received him at a meeting of writers, he said. François then wrote a text about him and tried to invite him as a professor at McGill. But Kundera already had agreements in Paris. They stayed in touch. »
At Boréal, François Ricard has accompanied many writers in their work, including Fernand Dumont, Serge Bouchard, Gilles Archambault, André Major, Jacques Brault and Pierre Nepveu.
“He was also the editor of younger writers like Dominique Fortier, Isabelle Daunais, Nadine Bismuth. He was a cultural bridge between generations,” says Pascal Assathiany.
From a strictly personal point of view, MM. Assathiany and Godbout lose a friend. “François was discreet, amused, amusing and humorous, says Jacques Godbout who had known Mr. Ricard at the review Freedom. He did not accept stupidity. And he was a very good golfer. »
François Ricard has received several distinctions during his career. He has won two Governor General’s Awards (1985 and 2003) and the Prix du Québec Athanase-David in 2018.
He took his last breath in Montreal following a long illness.