The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
VOLUME XVIII. Later National Literature, Part III.
§ 35. Alcée Fortier; L’Athenée Louisianais
For a generation nearly all that has been written in French in Louisiana may be found within the volumes of Comptes Rendus of L’Athénée Louisianais, a society for the encouragement of the French language and literature. Much of it is amateur and dilettante; much of it also is carefully considered and well written. Poems, essays, antiquarian researches, stories, discussions of many sorts—these indicate the taste of the contributors and readers. Dr. Mercier, founder of the society in 1876, was one of the most voluminous of these pleasant writers; another was Professor Alcée Fortier (1856–1914) of Tulane University, active and learned, the author of numerous studies of the language and folk-lore of his state, and of the elaborate History of Louisiana in four volumes which crowned his labours in 1904. His Louisiana Studies (1894) forms the basis of all our knowledge of the French literature of Louisiana.