Jean Narrache is one of the most underestimated Canadian poets and writers. His fundamental inspiration was the Depression, and he wrote about "the little guy" from the East End of Montreal. It was Narrache who introduced into French-Canadian literature the informal "habitant" language that would later develop into "joual," the slang of Montreal's working classes.

Emile Coderre, who later took the pen name of Jean Narrache, was born in Montreal on 10 June 1893 to Jeanne Marchaud and Emile Coderre, a pharmacist. He soon became an orphan and was adopted at the age of four by M.-A. Ouimet, who later sent him to be educated at the Séminaire de Nicolet. There he gave the first signs of his propensity for humor in Le Mercredi, a student weekly he published. When he graduated in 1912 Narrache returned to his native city where he joined the Ecole Littéraire...