HEBERT, ANNE

born Aug. 1, 1916, SainteCatherine-de-Fossambault, Que., Can. French-Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright. Hbert began writing poetry in her teens under the tutelage of her father, Maurice-Lang Hbert, a distinguished literary critic, and her cousin, Hector de Saint-Denys-Garneau, a poet. Her early poetry, Les Songes en equilibre (1942; "Dreams in Equilibrium") and Le Tombeau des rois (1953; The Tombs of Kings), reveals the poet in anguish, trading a child's joy of living for the stifling responsibilities of maturity. Hbert's first novel, Les Chambres de bois (1958; The Silent Rooms), and the short stories in Le Torrent (1963; The Torrent) take place in a world of symbolism and fantasy. Two subsequent novels deal with murders of passion (Kamouraska, 1970) and demonic possession (Les Enfants du sabbat, 1975; Children of the Black Sabbath). She also wrote for television and the theatre. Her plays were collected as Le temps sauvage (1967; "The Wild Time").