(Ryerson 1962 pb)
(rare signed Talonbooks/Macmillan 1971 pb)
James (Crerar) Reaney 1926-2008) was born near Stratford, ON and studied with Northrop Frye. He had a child-like imagination and imagery as evidenced in his plays Listen to the Wind (1972) and his best play Colours in the Dark (1969). He won the Governor General Award for The Red Heart (1949), Suit of Nettles (1958) and Twelve Letters to a Town, The Kildeer and Other Plays (1962). Reaney was admitted to the Order of Canada in 1976.
(NC Press, 1975 pb, GG Award winner, 1976)
‘Canada’s People Poet’ Milton (James Rhode) Acorn (1923-1986) was originally from Charlottetown, P.E.I. He was wounded by a depth-charge returning from WWII. Acorn lived in the Waverly Hotel, T.O. for several years and briefly married to poet Gwendolyn MacEwen. In 1967, he helped to found the Georgia Strait hippie magazine. I selected his “Whale Poem” for inclusion in Inside Poetry, 2nd. ed, (Harcourt).
(Ryerson dj, 1964, GG winner)
Raymond (Holmes) Souster (1921-2012) was born and lived in Toronto, and was employed by CIBC. Initially, he worked with Irving Layton and Louis Dudek, editing the legendary Contact (1952-1954) and Combustion (1957-1960) magazines. Writing about ordinary city folks and situations, Souster displayed a realistic acceptance of one and all. His best-known poem, “The Man Who Finds That His Son has Become a Thief”, was in both eds. of my Inside Poetry.
…………………………………….
The World Stopped
A poem by Raymond Souster
I was reading on the first
28 plus day of May
on the patio
savouring the axe fall
on rocks in stanza 3
when a small ant arrived
on p. 66.
I flicked him
as I had done others
of his ilk toward
the edge but
he smeared brownly
like an Andrew Wyeth
brushstroke
forever spoiling
my book and the purity
of my read.
I tried the white eraser
of hope on the stain
but he was still there
now a perpetual part of
“The World Stopped”.
Souster himself had the last word–
“The world resumed again”
though I have me dou’ts.
-R.D.
(Ryerson, 1963 dj; photo: Andre Larose; illustrations: Canadian Eskimo Art; Dept. of Northern Affairs & National Resources)
Yves Theriault (1915-1983) was born in Quebec City and educated in Montreal, later working for NFB. He was a professional writer of over 25 books and a member of the Royal Society of Canada. Agagkuk was also translated into English, Japanese, German, Italian, Yugoslavian, and Spanish. Ashini, his novel about Aboriginal Canadians, won the Governor General Award for French fiction in 1961. Theriault wrote often about the loneliness, pathos, nature, and native peoples.
(left: McClelland & Stewart, pb, 1969; centre: copy of Frank Newfeld’s original design, uncolored; right: signed Watson)
Sheila (Martin) Watson (1909-1998) was a long-time fiction writer, professor and critic. Her Double Hook (1959) was called the first contemporary novel in Canada. She was born in New Westminster, B.C., later marrying Wilfred Watson, another Canadian writer who was a poet and playwright. She turned down an offer to film her famous book because she wouldn’t have script veto rights. Watson and her husband retired to Nanaimo where they both died in 1998.
(rare double signed Peguis dj)
Rev./Dr. Thomas Saunders (1909-2005) was born in Scotland and came to Canada graduating from United College (U of Wpg). He was a Chaplain for the Royal Winnipeg Rifles and Literary Editor of the Winnipeg Free Press. Saunders had 6 books of poetry to his credit including 1951’s Horizontal World.
(rare signed 1942 Doubleday dj)
(Harlequin, 1951 pb; cover: illustrator Hammon?)
Thomas (Head) Raddall (1903-1994) was born at the quarters of the British Army School of Musketry near Folkestone, England where his father was a machine gun instructor, then moved to Halifax. Raddall was originally a short-story writer winning the Governor General Award for fiction in 1943 for his Pied Piper of Dipper Creek. He then became a historical novelist for books like those pictured above and The Nymph and the Lamp (1950). His Halifax, Warden of the North (1948) won the Governor General Award for non-fiction in 1948.
(McClelland & Stewart, 1963 dj)
Roy Daniells (1902-1979) was born in London, England and taught at U of MB and U of T before ending up at UBC from which he retired in 1974. Daniells was a poetic technician and sonnet master. His best known books are the one pictured above (designed by the great Frank Newfeld) and Deeper into the Forest (1948).
(Governor General Winner for nonfiction; Longmans, Green & Co., 1942 dj; design: Robert Josephy, author photo: the great Karsh)
(William) Bruce Hutchison (1901-1992) resided in Victoria and reported on the political scene in Ottawa. He was also well-known in journalistic circles in Washington. Huthison also served as an editor of the Winnipeg Free Press and Vancouver Sun. He wrote extensively about Canadian culture and history as evidenced by books like The Incredible Canadian (1952).
(Macmillan, 1948 scarce dj)
L(ouis) A(lexander) MacKay (1901-1982) was born in Western Ontario, educated in Toronto, and became a Rhodes Scholar, at Oxford. He taught Classics at UBC and Latin at the U of California. A witty satirical poet, MacKay is best known for his oft-anthologized poem “The Ill-Tempered Lover” which I myself selected for the first ed. of Connections 3: Discovering (Gage)
(Macmillan 1940 dj–Governor General Award for fiction)
‘Ringuet’–Philippe Panneton (1895-1966) was a native of Montreal whose ancestors first came to Three Rivers, PQ in 1640 and 1688. Panneton was a reporter, studied medicine, and became an eye specialist. The book above was first published in Paris in 1939 and received the Grand Prix du Roman there. (The title refers to the 500 foot wide and 1 mile (trente arpents–thirty acres) long river frontage of the old PQ farms with river frontage.)
