Juste Olivier
Encyclopedia
Juste Daniel Olivier Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, was born near Nyon
Nyon
Nyon is a municipality in the district of Nyon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Geneva metropolitan area. It lies on the shores of Lake Geneva, and is the seat of the district of...

 in the canton
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...

 of Vaud
Vaud
Vaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the French-speaking southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian , Waadt in German , and Vad in Romansh.-History:Along the lakes,...

; he was brought up as a peasant, but studied at the college of Nyon
Nyon
Nyon is a municipality in the district of Nyon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Geneva metropolitan area. It lies on the shores of Lake Geneva, and is the seat of the district of...

, and later at the academy of Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

.

Though originally intended for the ministry, his poetic genius (foreshadowed by the prizes he obtained in 1825 and 1828 for poems on Marcos Botzaris and Julia Alpinula respectively) inclined him towards literary studies. He was named professor of literature at Neuchâtel (1830), but before taking up the duties of his post made a visit to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where he completed his education and became associated with Sainte-Beuve
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve was a literary critic and one of the major figures of French literary history.-Early years:...

, especially from 1837 onwards. He professed history at Lausanne from 1833 to 1846, when he lost his chair in consequence of the religious troubles.

He then went to Paris, where he remained till 1870, earning his bread by various means, but being nearly forgotten in his native land, to which he remained tenderly attached. From 1845 till 1860 (when the magazine was merged in the Bibliothèque universelle) Olivier and his wife wrote in the Revue suisse the Paris letter, which had been started by Sainte-Beuve in 1843, when Olivier became the owner of the periodical. After the war of 1870 he settled down in Switzerland, spending his summers at his beloved Gryon
Gryon
Gryon is a municipality of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, located in the district of Aigle.-Geography:Gryon has an area, , of . Of this area, or 28.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 52.3% is forested...

, and died at Geneva on 7 January 1876.

Besides some novels, a semi-poetical work on the Canton of Vaud (2 vols., 1837-1841), and a volume of historical essays entitled Etudes d'histoire nalionale (1842), he published several volumes of poems, Deux Voix (1835), Chansons lointaines (1847) and its continuation Chansons du soir (1867), and Sentiers de montague (Gryon, 1875).

His younger brother, Urbain Olivier
Urbain Olivier
Urbain Olivier was a Swiss writer.The brother of Juste Olivier, he was well known from 1856 onwards as the author of numerous popular tales of rural life in the Canton of Vaud, especially of the region near Nyon.- External links :...

, was also a writer.

Authorities

Life by Eugène Rambert
Eugène Rambert
Eugène Rambert , was a Swiss author.He was born at Sales near Swiss Clarens, the eldest son of a Vaudois schoolmaster, from whom he received his education. When in 1845 his father lost his post owing to the religious disputes, Rambert became a teacher in Paris, and later a tutor in England and at...

(1877), republished in his Ecrivains de la Suisse romande (1889), and also prefixed to his edition of Olivier's Œuvres choisies (Lausanne, 1879).
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK