Albert Laberge was born in Beauharnois on February 18, 1871. His father was a farmer. Albert studied at Beauharnois College before going to Sainte-Marie in Montreal with the ambition of becoming a priest. He lost his faith in 1891 and was expelled from College for having read books that were not recommended at the time. He studied law from 1892 to 1896, but never practised. Instead, he worked at La Presse as a sports writer and art critic. When an excerpt from his first novel, La Scouine (Bitter Bread) first appeared in 1903, Mgr. Bruchési condemned it for being pornographic. Laberge married Mme. Eglantine Aubé in 1910, and Pierre, his only son was born in 1911. La Scouine, published by the author in sixty copies in 1911, is Laberge’s only novel. He purchased a house in Chateauguay, a few miles southwest of Montreal, and retired from La Presse a year later due to fatigue. From then on he wrote many short stories and works of criticism. Laberge stopped writing in 1956 with the death fo his wife. His own death occurred on April 4, 1960.
In the last few years his work has been “rediscovered” and he has become the object of considerable critical interest as a pioneer Canadian naturalist writer.
