A dramatist, poet, and author of short stories, Pierre Petitclair was the first native French Canadian to have a play published (Griphon ou La Vengeance d'un valet, 1837) and the first to have a play performed and published (La Donation, 1842; 1848). It is for these pioneering achievements that he is best remembered today.

Born to illiterate parents-Pierre and Cécile Moisan Petitclair-in the small farming community of St-Augustin de Portneuf, near Quebec City, Petitclair attended the newly established local primary school and the Petit Séminaire de Québec. He abandoned formal studies at the age of sixteen, working thereafter in a notary's office before accepting, in late 1837, a permanent position as tutor to the children of a large merchant family (the Labadies) established in Labrador. Literature remained an avocation for Petitclair for the rest of his life, almost all of which was spent on the remote...