Juste Olivier

Juste Daniel Olivier (October 18, 1807 – January 7, 1876), Swiss poet, was born in Eysins in the canton of Vaud; he was brought up as a peasant, but studied at the college of Nyon, and later at the academy of Lausanne.

[1] Though originally intended for the ministry, his poetic genius (foreshadowed by the prizes he obtained in 1825 and 1828 for poems on Markos Botsaris and Julia Alpinula respectively) inclined him towards literary studies.

He was named professor of literature at Neuchâtel (1830), but before taking up the duties of his post made a visit to Paris, where he completed his education and became associated with Sainte-Beuve, especially from 1837 onwards.

[4] Besides some novels, a semi-poetical work on the Canton of Vaud (2 vols., 1837–1841), and a volume of historical essays entitled Études d'histoire nalionale (1842), he published several volumes of poems, Deux Voix (1835), Chansons lointaines (1847) and its continuation Chansons du soir (1867), and Sentiers de montague (Gryon, 1875).

[4] Life by Eugène Rambert (1877), republished in his Ecrivains de la Suisse romande (1889), and also prefixed to his edition of Olivier's Œuvres choisies (Lausanne, 1879).