Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette
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ABBÉ ADRIEN-EMMANUEL ROUQUETTE ADRIEN ROUQUETTE Tribute to Orestes A. Brownson. Oui, je comprends, Brownson, ta haute intelligence Répandant sur nous tous sa feconde efflugence, Je comprends ta Revue, immense mine d’or Riche Californie, indegène tresor, Arsenal litteraire, ou nous trouvons des armes Pour vancre et terrasser l-erreur pleine d’alarmes. To Father Hecker. Je te comprends, Hecker, avec tes compagnons De la cause Eternelle eloquents champions, Apotres du Pays, héroíques Paulistes, De notre Republique ardents Evangelistes, Vous que le ciel destine a porter de grande coups, Je vous aime et salue, et je suis avec vous. “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Adrien Rouquette HDT WHAT? INDEX ADRIEN ROUQUETTE REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1813 February 26, Friday: Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette was born in New Orleans, Louisiana (his father, from Bordeaux, had recently married a young Creole woman and established himself as a local wine merchant). The family would include four other children, two of whom would later become well-known Louisiana poets (for instance, Francois-Dominique Rouquette). NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Adrien Rouquette “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1814 Shortly after the birth of Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette in 1813, perhaps in this year, the Rouquette family moved to Bayou Saint John on the outskirts of New Orleans, near settlements of Choctaw tribespeople. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. Adrien Rouquette “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ADRIEN ROUQUETTE REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1823 In Louisiana, Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette was a student at the Collège d’Orléans when his parents sent him north in an attempt to divert his mind from the local Choctaw — a low native people in regard to whom the interest of a white child was inappropriate. The white child would be pursuing his education in more innocuous locales, such as Kentucky and New Jersey. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Adrien Rouquette HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1829 Joseph-Héliodore-Sagesse-Vertu Garcin de Tassy’s RUDIMENTS DE LA LANGUE HINDOUSTANIE. Jean-Pierre Abel-Rèmusat’s NOUVEAUX MÉLANGES ASIATIQUES, OU RECUEIL DE MORCEAUX CRITIQUES ET DE MÉMOIRES RELATIFS AUX RELIGIONS, AUX SCIENCES, AUX COUTUMES, À L’HISTOIRE ET À LA GÉOGRAPHIE DES NATIONS ORIENTALES (Volumes I and II, Paris). Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette was sent to Paris to polish up his French at the Collège Royal in Paris. At the time the capital was in a political turmoil. To avoid this turmoil, the student would finish his college studies in Nantes and Rennes in the West of France. He would receive his baccalaureate in 1833 and then travel in Europe for awhile before returning to New Orleans. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Adrien Rouquette HDT WHAT? INDEX ADRIEN ROUQUETTE REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1833 In France, Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette received his baccalaureate. He travel in Europe for awhile and then return to New Orleans, to settle at Bayou Lacombe where would be near another settlement of Choctaw tribespeople. HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE ADRIEN ROUQUETTE CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette again journeyed from New Orleans to France, this time preparing for the practice of the law. He would have unhappy love affairs, find that he preferred literature to law, and return to Louisiana. Adrien Rouquette “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX ADRIEN ROUQUETTE REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1841 François-Auguste-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand provided a Christian “spin” for the revolutionary motto LIBERTÉ ÉGALITÉ FRATERNITÉ, alleging in the concluding section for his autobiography that: Far from being at its term, the religion of the Liberator is now only just entering its third phase, the political period, liberty, equality, fraternity. Adrien Rouquette published a collection of poems, LES SAVANES, POÉSIES AMÉRICAINES (Paris: J. Labitte & Nouvelle-Orléans: A. Moret). He so admired the romantic poetry of Chateaubriand that he dedicated a number of his pieces to him. The French critic Sainte-Beuve praised his work: I took great pleasure in your Savanes at smelling many youthful and sincere fragrances. It seemed to me that I was in a country that was friendly but that had not lost the charm of the unexpected. It is a great accomplishment, dear sir, for you to have experienced this vast wilderness and to have captured it HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE ADRIEN ROUQUETTE in your heart. HDT WHAT? INDEX ADRIEN ROUQUETTE REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE ADRIEN ROUQUETTE Rouquette entered the Plattenville seminary in Assumption Parish near New Orleans. He would be ordained as a Catholic priest in 1845. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Adrien Rouquette HDT WHAT? INDEX ADRIEN ROUQUETTE REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1842 Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette journeyed from New Orleans to France for a 3rd time. His poetry would be so well received that he would be able to return to Louisiana as editor of “Le Propagateur Catholique.” HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1845 Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette was ordained as a Catholic priest and assigned to the Cathedral of Saint Louis in New Orleans. He would serve for 14 years, becoming Vicar General. HDT WHAT? INDEX ADRIEN ROUQUETTE REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1846 January 8, Thursday: In New Orleans, Abbé Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette made a speech commemorating the Battle of New Orleans. The speech would be published in Paris.1 1. Abbé Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette. DISCOURS PRONONCÉ A LA CATHÉDRALE DE SAINT-LOUIS (Nouvelle-Orlèans, 1846), a l’occasion de l’anniversaire du 8 janvier (Paris: Librairie de Sauvaignat, 1846) HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1848 Abbé Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette’s WILD FLOWERS – SACRED POETRY (New Orleans, Louisiana: T. O’Donnell). HDT WHAT? INDEX ADRIEN ROUQUETTE REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1852 Abbé Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette’s LA THÉBAÏDE EN AMÉRIQUE, OU, APOLOGIE DE LA VIE SOLITAIRE ET CONTEMPLATIVE (Nouvelle Orleans: Imprimerie Méridier). HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE ADRIEN ROUQUETTE 1854 November 1, Wednesday: The personal library of Francis Sales was sold at auction (Harvard Library has an inventory of the volumes). Henry Thoreau was being written to by Abbé Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette of New Orleans, appreciating WALDEN; OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS and asking for a copy of A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS. Mandeville, St. Tammany, La. 1.e Nov 1854 Mr Henry D. Thoreau. Monsieur—, En lisant le numero dans Novembre de la Revue de Putnam, je fut frappé par la courte notice sur [n]otre ouvrage intitulé: Walden; or, Life in the Woods. J’ai eu le bonheur de le trouver chez in libraire de la Nouvelle Orléans, et je l’ai lu presque en entier. Avant meme de l’avoir fini, j’éprouve le besoin de vous exprimer ma sinceré et cordiale admiration. Votre livre m’a immensément intéressé; il m’a rappelé HDT WHAT? INDEX ADRIEN ROUQUETTE REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE le “Voyage autour de ma chambre” du fam[eux] Xavier de Maistre; mais il est plus séri[eux] et plus philosophique. J’ose, Monsieur, vous prier de m’envoyer, si vous le pouvez (par la poste) un exemplaire de “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers”: vous me feriez le plus grand plaisir. Je vous pria d’ac- cepter trois de mes ouvrages: Wild-Flowers—La Thébaéde en Amérique—et Un Discours—qui je vous envoie en memé temps que cette lettre. Page 2 Mon adresse est: Revd. Adrian Rouquette, Mandeville, St. Tammany, Louisiana. Croyez, Monsieur, é tous les sentiments du respect et du sympathie avec lesquels je suis votre tout déviné Serviteur A Rouquette P.S. C’est par l’intermédiaire de Ticknor & Fields que je vous envoir cette lettre et les livres qui l’accompagnent. WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF November 11, Saturday: A story by Louisa May Alcott appeared in Boston’s Saturday Evening Gazette,“The Rival Prima Donnas” by “Flora Fairfield.” Henry Thoreau received the package of three books, and letter in French, that had been posted by the Abbé Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette in New Orleans on the 1st of the month. Total travel time from the Louisiana port to the Massachusetts port, plus pickup and delivery in Boston to the publishing firm of Ticknor, and forwarding to Concord, had been a remarkably short ten days! The books in the package were, presumably: • Rouquette’s LA THÉBIADE DE L’AMÉRIQUE • Rouquette’s WILD FLOWERS Adrien Rouquette “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX REVEREND ADRIEN ROUQUETTE ADRIEN ROUQUETTE • Rouquette’s LES SAVANES, POESIES AMERICAINES November 13, Monday: Henry Thoreau replied, with the requested copy of A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS, to the Abbé Adrien-Emmanuel Rouquette. Revd Adrian Rouquette Concord Mass. Nov. 13th 1854. Dear Sir I have just received your letter and the 3 works which accompanied it — and I make haste to send you a copy of “A Week — on the Concord & Merrimack Rivers” —by the same mail with this— I thank you heartily for the interest which you express in