Henri Potez

This article is about the writer. For the aerospace engineer, see Henry Potez.

Henri François Louis Auguste Potez (20 January 1863 – 14 June 1946) was a French writer, poet and teacher.

Biography

Henri Potez was born at Montreuil-sur-Mer in the Pas-de-Calais department, the son of a brewery merchant. He received his baccalauréat in letters in 1882. Later Potez was awarded a bachelor's scholarship at the Faculty of Letters, Douai (1883–1886); licence ès lettres at the Faculty of Letters, Douai (1886); agrégation des lettres at the Faculty of Letters, Douau (1888); doctorate at the Faculty of Letters, Paris (February 9, 1898).

Professor of the third class at the Collège de Lunéville (1886–1887); lecturer in French language and literature at the Lycée de Laon (1887–1888); professeur de rhétorique au lycée de Laon (1888–1890); professor of humanities at the Lycée de Douai (1890–1894); on leave with pay in 1894–1895 (for his thesis); professor of literature at the Lycée de Douai (1895–1906); lecturer in French language and literature at the Faculty of Letters of Lille (January 23, 1906); assistant professor in March 1908; professor of French language and literature at the Faculty of Letters of Lille (November 1, 1911); retired on September 30, 1933.

A lover of French literature and a great "friend of Letters", he himself wrote numerous poems and short plays. He was one of Auguste Angellier's closest friends, and took a keen interest in regional language and literature, of which he attempted to compile an anthology. "During his long (27 years at the faculty) and brilliant career, Professor Potez has trained a large number of students, both for the licence and the agrégation. The services he has rendered to our institution have not only consisted in teaching of the highest scientific value, but also in the great moral influence he has exerted through the example of boundless devotion and a deep attachment to French letters", declared the council of the Lille Faculty of Letters at its meeting on November 24, 1933, when the incumbents decided to vote for honorary status.

Henri Potez died in Montreuil-sur-Mer at 83 years of age.

Works

• L’élégie en France avant le romantisme: 1778-1820 (1893; thesis awarded the Narcisse-Michaut Prize by the French Academy in 1899)
• Jean Bodel et le jeu de Saint-Nicolas (1893)
• Puy de l’Assomption (comédie en un acte et en vers) (1899)
• Jours d’autrefois: poésies (1895)
• André Chénier (awarded the Prix d'éloquence by the French Academy in 1900)
• Théophile Gautier (1903; awarded the Prix d'éloquence by the French Academy in 1902)
• Petite anthologie des écrivains du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais: les paysages des Flandres, de l’Artois et du Boulonnais chantés par les poètes (1907)
• Fontenelle: 1657-1757 (1909)
• Pages choisies de Fontenelle (1909)
• Rabelais et Fontenelle (1909)
• L'œuvre critique de Sir Walter Raleigh (1914)
• Villes meurtries de France : Arras (1918)
• Montreuil-sur- mer: guide du touriste (1929)
• Traduction et annotation des Lettres galantes de Denys Lambin (1552-1554) (1941; awarded the Prix Saintour by the French Academy in 1942)

External links

• Works by Henri Potez at Gallica
• Works by Henri Potez at Persée