Quebec writer Claude Jasmin has died at age 91

Writer Claude Jasmin receives the Athanase-David Prize (Literature) from former culture minister Luc Fortin, at the Prix du Quebec ceremony, Wednesday, November 8, 2016, at the National Assembly in Quebec City. LA PRESSE CANADIENNE/Jacques Boissinot

MONTREAL — Writer, scenographer and pamphleteer Claude Jasmin, who wrote the TV series 'La Petite Patrie' in the mid-1970s, died on Wednesday night at the age of 91.

The news was announced Thursday by his website without any further details.

Jasmin published about 50 books, including `Pleure pas Germaine', in 1965, written entirely in joual, as a nose-thumbing to supporters of 'speaking well.'

His novel "La Sablière" (1979) was made into the 1984 film "Mario," by Jean Beaudin, with Francis Reddy.

In 2016, the Quebec government bestowed upon him its highest literary award, the Athanase-David prize.

In 2003, Louis Cornellier, literary critic for Le Devoir, summed up the qualities of this "boisterous and populist novelist" as follows: a sense of neighbourhood life, a fascination with his surroundings, the depth and mystery of the human being, the art of storytelling, and an unshakeable faith in writing.

- This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2021.