Jean Price-Mars

About

Notable for his political and literary work, Price-Mars served in the Haitian Senate and penned La Republique d'Haiti et la Republique Dominicaine (1953); Ainsi Parla l'Oncle (1928); and other books championing the late 19th and early 20th-century Negritude movement.

Before Fame

Early in his political career, he represented his naive Haiti in both Washington, D.C. and Paris. While continuing his political and literary work, he studied medicine and worked as a teacher.

Trivia

In the last decade of his life, he served as Haiti's ambassador to both France and the United Nations.

Family Life

He was born and raised in Grande Riviere du Nord, Haiti.

Associated With

One of his contributions to Negritude philosophy was the concept of "collective Bovarism" (named for Emma Bovary, the heroine of Gustave Flaubert's classic novel Madame Bovary) as a descriptor for the Haitian elite who divorced themselves from their African ancestry and cultural history and identified only with their European heritage.