Pierre Lhande

Pierre Lhande Heguy was a French writer. He was born in Bayonne, France on 9 July 1877 and died 17 April 1957 in Tardets, Soule; for unknown reasons he was given his grandfather's surname, Lhande, as opposed to his father's surname Basagaitz.

Biography

At the age of 8 when Lhande's father died he moved to Sauguis-Saint-Étienne in Soule with his mother. A young man, he joined the Seminary of Bayonne but was subsequently expelled due to his pre-occupation with poetry and the Basque language. He then joined the Jesuits of Rodez and moved to Belgium and later the Netherlands with the order. After a teaching spell in El Puerto de Santa María, he returned to Belgium and was ordained in August 1910. He returned to Hondarribia in the Northern [Basque Country] in 1911. He would remain in the Basque Country until his death in 1957 in the Saint-Antoine à Tardets home.

The author of numerous pieces of writing, he is perhaps best known for his monumental 1926 Dictionnaire Basque-Français of the Northern Basque dialects Labourdin, Lower Navarrese and Souletin.