Correspondence with François-Alphonse Petit (1814-1849)

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 133 VMH/1/439/1-26
  • Dates of Creation
      1838
      n.d.
  • Physical Description
      25 letters and 15 poems (counted as one item)

Scope and Content

Petit was a "poète-ouvrier" (a "working-poet") during the 1830-40s. He belonged to a poetic movement started in the 1830s from the journal La Ruche Populaire, where workers published their poems inspired by Christian-Socialist ideas. The most famous of these poets was doubtless Savinien Lapointe (1812-1893). The movement was supported by established writers such as Lamartine, Eugène Sue, or Victor Hugo, of whom Alphonse Petit seems to have been the protégé. Little is known on him, he apparently did not publish the poems he sent to Hugo. A letter from Voituret (cf. VMH/1/571) mentions that Petit started to correspond with Hugo in 1834 and Petit's brother told Hugo that Alphonse Petit died on 4 March 1849 (cf. VMH/1/440/2).