Born in Rouyn-Noranda and raised in the village of Clova,[1][2][3] Beauchemin received his degree in French literature and art history at the Université de Montréal in 1965.

Beauchemin was working as an editor in a Montreal publishing firm when he began contributing essays and stories to magazines and newspapers.

The panoramic canvases of his novels capture the teeming life of the streets, reflecting their author's appreciation of such great nineteenth-century writers as Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky and Gogol.

[4] On October 28, 2003 Yves Beauchemin was appointed Officier de l'Ordre national du Québec.

The final book of the Charles the Bold trilogy, "Parti pour la gloire" was never published in English.