Charles Séguy-Villevaleix

Biography

(Port-au-Prince, 1835-1923)

Charles Séguy-Villevaleix studied in France and taught at L’Ecole Polymathique on his return to Haiti. From 1870 to 1874, he served as secretary for the Haitian legation in London and then as Minister Resident in London and Paris until his retirement in 1883. He lived in Paris from then until his death. Séguy-Villevaleix contributed columns and literary criticism to the Le Bien Public journal. He published his own works in that journal including a play La Chasse aux Emotions which was performed in 1865 (Berrou 308-310; Morpeau, 73-74). His only volume of poetry, Les Primevères, was published in 1866 and praised by a professor at the Collège de France as an example of excellent writing by a person of color (Morpeau 73).

Biography by Emeline Frix, 2022

Bibliography

Berrou Raphaël, and Pradel Pompilus. Histoire de la littérature haïtienne illustrée par les textes. Ed. Caraïbes, 1975.

La Selve, Edgar. Histoire de la littérature haïtienne, depuis ses origines jusqu'à nos jours. Cerf, 1875.

Morpeau, Louis. Anthologie d'un siècle de poésie haïtienne 1817-1925. Bossard, 1924.