Charles Le Goffic

Charles Le Goffic (14 July 1863 – 12 February 1932) was a Breton poet, novelist and historian whose influence was especially strong in his native Brittany. He was a member of the Académie française.

Biography Born in Lannion, northern Brittany, his childhood was spent with his nurse, either in Perros-Guirec, or in Trégastel. In October 1888, he married Julie Fleury. Following a legal judgement in his favour he bought a farm at Run-Rouz in Trégastel. He worked as a teacher in Gap, Évreux, Nevers and in Le Havre. In 1886, he founded with Maurice Barrès and Raymond de Tailhède the literary review Les Chroniques. Goffic wrote widely about aspects of Breton and broader Celtic cultural identity, emphasising the importance of local traditions and cultural continuity. His short stories Passions Celtes (1910) were widely influential on the Breton cultural renaissance. One of them was dramatised by Le Goffic at the request of Guy Ropartz for the libretto of his opera Le Pays.

Politically close to Charles Maurras, he collaborated on the Revue d'Action française (1899), which later became L'Action française (1908). Although a convinced republican, his militant regionalism and his traditionalist ideals led him to support the "Maurrassisme" project to restore the monarchy, as his letter published in L'Enquête sur la monarchie (1900) testifies.

Goffic was elected member of the Académie française in 1930.

In 1895 he introduced the Great Highland Bagpipe to Brittany.

He is interred in the enclosure of the church of the borough of Trégastel, with his wife and their daughter, who died at the age of 17.