Ernest Doin

Born in Bourges, France, in 1809, Ernest Doin later emigrated to North America and eventually settled in Quebec. Historical notes from La Société d'histoire de La Prairie-de-la-Magdeleine say that he worked as a lawyer and teacher in Saint-Jean-d'Iberville between 1847 and 1850, then opened a school in La Prairie in 1851.

Doin is remembered as a French-language dramatist as well as an educator. His plays circulated widely enough to be preserved by Project Gutenberg and other digital libraries, and they include comedies, farces, and historical dramas such as Le dîner interrompu, Le divorce du tailleur, and Le pacha trompé ou Les deux ours.

He died in 1891, after a life that crossed France, the United States, and Canada. That journey seems to have shaped both his practical career and his writing, leaving behind the work of a teacher-author who helped carry popular French theater into 19th-century Canadian literary life.