Camille Dourguin was born in Maillane near Avignon in the South of France The young Camille won a place in the Ecole Normale de Garçons d’Aixen- Provence, from which he graduated as an ‘instituteur’ (primary school teacher) in 1913. He was posted to the nearby village of Eyragues, but was only there a year before being conscripted into the French Army to fi ght in the front line during the 1914–18 war. He survived the confl ict and on his return to civilian life obtained a post in the boys’ primary school in St Rémy de Provence. He married in 1920 Hélène Germain, an institutrice, who joined him in St Rémy and taught in the same school. Although he had to teach in French, he never lost his love of his native tongue, and did much to maintain Provençal culture by stimulating his pupils to recite poems and sing songs in Provençal. He therefore looked upon the task of producing this textbook as a labour of love.