Robert Elie is best known for two novels: La Fin des songes (1950; translated as Farewell My Dreams, 1954) and Il suffit d'un jour (It Only Takes a Day, 1957). Together with other young Quebec writers and intellectuals, he began in the 1940s to portray with a critical eye the moral and psychological dilemmas of his people, confronted by the need to find answers to fundamental existential questions. If the criticism of a whole generation in his fictional work is bitter, throughout his public life Elie showed generosity and understanding for his fellow Quebeckers. He served as a cultural ambassador for Quebec both in Canada and abroad.

Born to Emile and Maria Dubois Elie in Montreal's working-class neighborhood of Pointe Saint-Charles, he pursued his classical studies at Collège Sainte-Marie. In 1933, at eighteen, he met and became the friend of the poet Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, whose work Elie championed...