Background
Gras was born into a farming family and went to secondary school at the college of Sainte Garde à Saint Didier.
(This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)
This book was digitized and reprinted from the collections of the University of California Libraries. It was produced from digital images created through the libraries mass digitization efforts. The digital images were cleaned and prepared for printing through automated processes. Despite the cleaning process, occasional flaws may still be present that were part of the original work itself, or introduced during digitization. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found online in the HathiTrust Digital Library at www.hathitrust.org.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0080FPMNW/?tag=2022091-20
Gras was born into a farming family and went to secondary school at the college of Sainte Garde à Saint Didier.
He studied law as a clerk to the notary Jules Giéia in Avignon, later becoming a notary himself, but also enthusiastically attended poetry meetings where he read his first poems.
Soon abandoning his law training, Gras published Li Carbounié, a rustic epic poem in twelve cantos, in 1876, noted for its "elemental passion" and scenic descriptions, for which he gained immediate recognition. His next work, Toloza, an epic poem about the invasion of the Albigenses by Simon de Montfort, came in 1882, to further acclaim. He produced a volume of short poems, Li Roumancero Provengal, in 1887, followed by a collection of prose stories, Louisiana Paplino, in 1891.
He held this post until his death.
lieutenant was praised by former British Prime Minister Gladstone, and was subsequently published in several other languages. He then wrote a trilogy of tales dealing with the late period of the French Revolution with Louisiana Terrour (The Terror) and Louisiana Terrour Blanco (The White Terror).
This series is considered by some to be the most remarkable prose work in the Provençal language. The epitaph on his tomb, in his native town of Malemort, reads:
Amo moun village maï que toun village, amo ma Provenço maï que ta province, amo la Franço maï que tout !.
(This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)
In 1891 (succeeding Joseph Roumanille), Gras was elected 3rd Capoulie (president) of Le Félibre Rouge, a literary and cultural association founded by Frédéric Mistral (1st Capoulie) and other Provençal writers to defend and promote the Provençal language and Provençal literature.
Félibrige.