Fortier, Edward Joseph

Submitted by Mike Miller

Fortier, Edward Joseph, was born in New Orleans, La., on Dec. 9, 1883,. the son of the late distinguished professor and educator, Alcée Fortier, who for 35 years occupied the chair of romance languages at Tulane university, and of Marie Lanauze, daughter of a well-known New Orleans merchant. From this union were born 4 other children: James J. A., a prominent young lawyer; J. Frank and Gilbert J., Tulane university students, and 1 daughter, Jeanne. On Sept. 11, 1906, the subject of this sketch was married to Marie Tricou of an old Louisiana family. On March 3, 1912, in New York city, there was born to them a daughter, Alida-Marie, who is the 8th generation in direct line from the St. Malo colonists born in the United States, and the first in that long line to be born outside of Louisiana. After attending French private schools in New Orleans, Edward J. Fortier was prepared for college at L. C. Ferrell 's preparatory school and entered Tulane university in 1900, where he was graduated in 1904 with the degree of bachelor of arts. Immediately after he began bettering himself for his life's work, namely, that of teaching. Under the guidance, among others, of Profs. A. M. Elliott and E. C. Armstrong, he pursued higher studies for 2 years in romance languages at the Johns Hopkins University, after which he formally entered into the career of an educator, following in the footsteps of his distinguished father, by being called to Yale to teach French. Rising rapidly to a higher rank in his chosen profession, Mr. Fortier was called to the University of Illinois, where he taught French for 3 years and devoted some of his leisure time to further studies in old French with Prof. Raymond Weeks. He was then called again to the East and accepted a position of great importance at Columbia University, where he is now located and where he has done special research work under Profs. Cohn and Todd. His success there has been so marked that he has been offered numerous positions in various institutions of learning, 2 of which are in the South. Mr. Fortier has taught French at Notre Dame of Maryland and in the Tulane Summer school, giving in both these institutions short courses of 6 and 9 weeks, respectively. He is a frequent lecturer in outside institutions and during the last summers of 1913 and 1914 he has lectured on French literature at the Lake Champlain Summer assembly, which is better known as the Catholic Summer school of America. Besides his teaching and further research, he has held numerous positions of trust at the various universities with which he had been connected. At Yale he was secretary of the Modern Language club and member of the executive committee of the Connecticut Modern Language association. At Illinois he was secretary of the faculty of literature and arts and secretary of the modern language department and faculty director of the French club and college adviser to students. At Columbia, college adviser of students and in charge of honor work in the romance department, a member of the Romance Language club and a member of other literary societies. He has read papers at meetings of the Modern Language association of America held at the University of Ohio, also papers at the meetings held at the Universities of Chicago and Iowa. He has published in the transactions of the Illinois State Historical association a paper based upon hitherto unpublished French letters: "The Founding of the Tamanois Mission"; he presented a long monograph at the first congress of French letters held in Quebec in 1912, at which memorable gathering there were delegates from all the French speaking sections of America. This monograph, somewhat enlarged, is about to appear under the title, ''French Letters in Louisiana,'' in the transactions of the congress. He is now preparing a book on the French literature of Louisiana. He has read several papers at various special meetings of Romance Language clubs in various universities. Among various activities, he is reader in French for the college entrance examination board; contributing editor to the French review, "Le Pensé de France"; official delegate to the "Fédération de l'Alliance Française''; member of the Tulane Alumni association; Phi Delta Theta fraternity; Modern Language association of America; Louisiana State Historical Society; Columbia "University Faculty club, and a subscriber to a proposed American national biography, and to numerous reviews on literary and pedagogical subjects. Now 31 years of age, Mr. Fortier occupies an enviable position among the members of his profession. His rise has been rapid and his reputation as a scholar is already firmly established in the literary world.

Source: Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 166-167. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.