The Governor General’s Literary Awards: English-Language Winners, 1936–2013 Andrew David Irvine* Entries are now being received for the Governor-General’s Annual Literary Awards for 1937, arranged by the Canadian Author’s Association. Medals will be given for the best books of fiction, poetry and general literature, respectively. The book must have been published during the calendar year 1937; and the author must be a Canadian. … There is no particular closing date. When the judges have read all the books, they will name the winners and that will end the matter. William Arthur Deacon1 This list2 of Governor General’s Literary Award–winning books differs from previous lists in several ways. It includes • five award-winning books from 1948, 1963, 1965, and 1984 (three in English and two in French) inadvertently omitted from previous lists; • the division of winning titles into historically accurate award categories; • a full list of books by non-winning finalists who have received cash prizes, a practice that began in 2002; • a full list of declined awards; • more detailed bibliographical information than can be found in most other lists; and 1* Andrew Irvine holds the position of professor and head of Economics, Philosophy, and Political Science at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Errata may be sent to the author at
[email protected]. 11 William Arthur Deacon, The Fly Leaf, Globe and Mail, 9 April 1938, 15. 12 The list is split between two articles. The current article contains bibliographical information about English-language books that have won Governor General’s Literary Awards between 1936 and 2013.