The author and former president of the Union of Quebec Writers and Writers (UNEQ) Louis Gauthier died Wednesday at the age of 78, his relatives confirmed to the Duty. Carried away by cancer, he bequeaths a “unique work […] topped with humor and poetry”, which we “know little about”.
Discreet, particularly in his last moments, Louis Gauthier was someone “exceptionally nice”. A “delicacy” which was felt when he was president of the UNEQ, from 1996 to 1998. “He was a president that one could say, not political. A president in love with books, in love with authors, who read a lot, ”recalls the writer and friend of Mr. Gauthier, Stéphane Despatie. “He said what he thought with humor. »
Born in 1944, Louis Gauthier first studied philosophy at the University of Montreal. A formation that has “never left”, says the actress Julie Vincent. He “had a poetic, philosophical, spiritual quest and also an absolutely unclassifiable humor in life and in his writing”, recalls the one who met him by chance in the street when she “was not yet twenty years old. “.
“I was reading a book called Anna and I was completely captivated by this reading. […] I started him [en] speak[…], and he told me “I wrote it”. What followed was a relationship that lasted three years.
After Anna (1967), The Adventures of Sivis Pacem and Para Bellum, Volume I (1970), The great celestial vegetables speak to you (1973) and Memories of San Chiquita (1978), Louis Gauthier devoted himself to travelogues.
He publishes at VLB Travel to Ireland with an umbrella (1984) and London Bridge (1988) before going on hiatus for thirteen years. In 2002, Trip to Portugal with a Germanpublished by Fides, earned him the Grand Prix littéraire of the City of Montreal.
In his books with “titles emblematic of his imagination”, he “positions himself as the Quebecer who travels, who seeks to build and deconstruct himself”, underlines the actress.
Constructing and deconstructing is also what the writer did with his works, which he “re-read a lot”. Each word was carefully chosen, a legacy of his career in advertising, which gave him a “sense of formula”.
“I had the impression that he was sanctifying [la publication]. He had absolutely no acute publicity, ”says Mr. Despatie. “He translated, did mandates, […] he had zero problems delivering quickly. But when it comes to his own lyrics, he had great modesty. »
“I also remember that he often said ‘there are a lot of people who write, but not enough who read’. So he had that concern, ”he adds.
If Louis Gauthier never spoke to Mr. Despatie about literary projects after his last book in 2011 – and a few poems published in the magazine Exit —, he confided last winter to Mme Vincent think about a return. “He was very modest, so I suspect that having told me that, he must have had many pages, many unpublished. »
But for the moment, “let’s turn to his books”, launch his two friends. “He was a big guy, then even if he was in advertising, he didn’t play from those peaks. We don’t know much about him, I find, ”said Mr. Despatie, calling for the works of Louis Gauthier to be more visible in bookstores.
Louis Gauthier is survived by his spouse, Janick Couture, his children, Philippe and Geneviève, as well as his friends from the literary world.