See also Charles Etienne Arthur Gayarre.

Charles Etienne Arthur Gayarré (New Orleans, January 9, 1805 - February 11, 1895) was a historian and a writer of plays, essays, and novels. He is chiefly remembered for his histories of Louisiana.

The grandson of Etienne de Boré, he was born at the Boré plantation in what was at the time a suburb of New Orleans, but has long been incorporated into the city as Audubon Park. A product of the College of New Orleans, he read law in Philadelphia but returned in 1829 to New Orleans to practice. He was elected to the state legislature in 1830, was appointed deputy attorney general in 1831, and presiding judge of the City Court of New Orleans in 1833. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1835, but ill health prevented him from serving; instead, he went to Europe, living there for eight years. On his return to Louisiana he was again elected to the state legislature in 1844 and 1846. Appointed Secretary of State in 1846, he served in that capacity for seven years. In 1853 he failed to be elected to the U. S. Congress, but remained active in Louisiana politics as an ally of Slidell in the "Regular Democratic" movement. During the Civil War, like most Louisianians, he sided with the Confederacy; in 1863 he proposed that the slaves be emancipated and armed, provided that France and England recognized the Confederacy. After the war, he was for a number of years reporter of the state Supreme Court, but devoted increasing time to his literary pursuits, among which his association with the Louisiana Historical Society, of which he was President from 1860 to 1888.

Works

• Histoire de la Louisiane (1846)

In English:

• History
  • The History of Louisiana, successive portions under various titles 1847‑1854, then recast in a final comprehensive edition in 1866
  • Philip II of Spain (1866)
• Novels
  • Fernando de Lemos, Truth and Fiction (1872)
  • Aubert Dubayet (1882)
• Plays
  • The School for Politics: A Dramatic Novel (1854)
  • Dr. Bluff, a comedy in two acts

American historians | American novelists | American dramatists and playwrights | Louisiana politicians | Louisiana writers | Louisiana Creoles | People from New Orleans | 1805 births | 1895 deaths

Charles Gayarré | Charles Gayarré