Poet, novelist and politician.

Son of a miller, Clovis Hugues was born in Ménerbes on November 3, 1851. At the age of 19 he joined the Insurrectionary Commune of Marseille and wrote an article in the Vrai Marseillais which earned him a sentence of three years in prison and a fine of 6,000 francs for press offense. His prison poems were noticed by Victor Hugo. He also wrote in the langue d'ooc and joined the Félibrige movement founded by several Provençal poets, including Frédéric Mistral.

On his release from prison, Clovis Hugues married Jeanne Royannez and when a Bonapartist journalist, Désiré Mordant, insulted the young wife, Hugues challenged him to a duel and killed him. He was acquitted in February 1878. The honor of Madame Hugues was not attacked with impunity who, in 1884, silenced with several revolver shots, a detective who accused him of adultery with the aim of harming political career of her husband. The affair caused a stir and Madame Hugues was acquitted on January 8, 1885. Jeanne Royannez was a sculptor and she produced a bronze bust of her husband, then a Socialist deputy for Marseille. A copy of this work can be found in Ménerbes in front of the school that bears his name, mounted on a stone plinth by the Vaucluse sculptor Félix Devaux.

Clovis Hugues was re-elected to the Chamber in 1885 and joined the Boulangist movement. In 1893 he became deputy for Paris, retaining his seat until 1906. He continued to publish his poems, novels and comedies, works full of wit and vitality, until his death in 1907 at the age of 56. years.