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Author: Girardin, Louis Hue

Biography:

Girardin, Louis Hue (1771-1825: Hollis)

Born Jean François Picot in Normandy, France, and educated at the Lyceum of Rouen, he went on to study law in Paris. He published a translation of Goldsmith's Deserted Village and wrote a verse tragedy, Leonidas, which remained unpublished. He is said to have been in line for a post in the royal library before the execution of the King. Picot enlisted in a royalist force that was routed by revolutionary guards. He thereupon changed his name to Louis Hue Girardin and made his way to America, where he was welcomed as an instructor in various places before accepting a position at William and Mary College in Williamsburg VA, where he taught French, history, geography, and botany from 1803 to 1807. His Latin poem, "De Monomachia, sive Duello" was initially published in a Richmond magazine, The Visitor, in 1809. Girardin's wife and son died in the Richmond theatre fire of 1811, leaving him a widower with two daughters. After some other ventures--journalism, translation, teaching--he became the principal of a college for girls in Baltimore. He was later the founding President of the Maryland Academy of Science and Literature. Among other projects, he translated a French account of the Revolution as Revolutionary Annals (1805) and contributed to the completion of the History of Virginia (1804-16) started by John Daly Burk (q.v.). (J.T.D., "Biographical Notice" Transactions of the Maryland Academy of Science and Literature 1 [1837]: 17-23)

 

Other Names:

  • L. H. G.
 

Books written (1):