Background
Madeleine Ferron was born in Louiseville, Quebec, on July 24, 1922, where her father was a notary. Of her siblings, one became a painter, while another became a physician as well as an author.
2900 Boulevard Edouard-Montpetit, Montréal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada
Ferron attended the University of Montreal, where she took humanities courses, but didn't finished her degree.
2325 Rue de l'Université, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Ferron studied ethnology at the Universite Laval in 1960s.
Madeleine Ferron was born in Louiseville, Quebec, on July 24, 1922, where her father was a notary. Of her siblings, one became a painter, while another became a physician as well as an author.
Convent-educated, Ferron attended the University of Montreal, where she took humanities courses, but didn't finished her degree. She also studied ethnology at the Universite Laval in 1960s.
Ferron settled in a rural village there called Saint-Joseph, which was the oldest parish, or administrative unit, in the Chaudiere River valley area.
Ferron did not see the publication of her first novel until she was past the age of forty. A romance, La Fin des loups-garous ("The End of the Werewolves") was published in 1966 and reveals Ferron's deep attachment to Beauce and its culture.
A second book from Ferron was also published in 1966: Coeur de sucre. Set entirely in Beauce, the short stories present a whole cast of local village types.
Ferron's 1971 novel, Le Baron ecarlate, is only her second full-length work. It is narrated by Irene, a little girl from a large but extremely poor Quebec family.
Le Chemin des dames and its fifteen short stories was published six years after Le Baron ecarlate. Each story centers around a female character, and the first few protagonists in the collection are depicted as mired in their traditional roles - daughter, wife, mother - but then the stories progress over time, and a more contemporary, independent female triumphs in the final tales.
In 1972 she wrote, with her husband, the first of two essays based on their extensive historical research into the village of Saint-Joseph. Quand le peuple fait la loi, la loi populaire a Saint-Joseph de Beauce explores the nature of local customs and codes of conduct in a society, showing how longstanding community ties in a place such as Saint-Joseph shape an individual's relationships with family, religious, and government institutions. The second of the Ferron/Cliche essays was published in 1974. Les Beaucerons, ces insoumis: petite histoire de la Beauce, 1735-1867 is a specific history of Beauce.
A writer and novelist, she also worked as a government commissioner and radio show host. She wrote for several magazines, notably Châtelaine and L'actualité.
She died in February 2010 in Quebec City, Quebec.
Ferron wed Robert Cliche in 1945, who later became a judge and a prominent political name in Quebec. They had a son.