Notary and writer, Garneau was born and died in Québec City. He was City Clerk from 1844 to 1864 and was active in the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec and in the Institut Canadien de Quebec of which he was a founder. His fame rests on his "History of Canada, from the Time of its Discovery till the Union Year 1840-41", which admirably expresses the surge of French Canadian national feeling provoked by the Durham Report. Recognized by his contemparies as their historien national, he is now regarded as the most important French Canadian writer of the 19th century both for the quality and the influence of his work.