DOCSLIB.ORG

Purdy-Al-2071A.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

AL PURDY PAPERS PRELIMINARY INVENTORY Table of Contents Biographical Sketch .................................. page 1 Provenance •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 0 ••••••••• page 1 Restrictions ..................................... 0 ••• page 1 General Description of Papers ••••••••••••••••••••••• page 2 Detailed Listing of Papers ............................ page 3 Appendix •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• page 52 • AL f'lJRDY PAPEllS PRELnlI~ARY INVENroRY BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Al Purdy was born in 1918 in Hoo ler, Ontario . His formal education eeied after only two years of high scnool. He spent the next years of his life wandering from job to job, spending the war years with the R.C.A.F. He spent some time on the West Coast and in 1956 be returned east.. He has received Canada Council Grants wbich enabled him to t ravel into the interior of British Columbia (1960) and to Baffin Island (1965) and a tour of Greece (1967). He has published 10 books of poetry and edited three books, and has contributed to various magazines. His published books are; The En ch~"ted Echo (1944) Pr. ssed 00 Sand (1955) Emu Remember (1957) Tne Grafte So Longe to Lerne (1959) r Poems for all the AnnetteG (1962) The Blur in Between (1963 earihoo Horses (1965) Covernor Ceneral'5 weda1 North of Summer (1967) ·Wild Grape Wine (1968) The New Romans (1968) Fifteeo Wind. (1969) l've Tasted My Blood. Selected poems of Mil ton Acorn (1969) He has also reviel-.'ed many new books and h&s written some scripts for the C.B.C. PROVENANCE These paperG were purchased from Al Purdy witb fun~from The Chancellor Richardson Memorial Fu.."'\d in 1969. RESTRICTIONS None. - 2­ GSNERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPERS The Purdy Papers ~ totalling 6 feet 1 inch consist of correspondence, manuscript s, and personal material for· the period 1955 - 1969. There are 3 boxes of general correspondence , let ters from J.iil ton Acorn, Margaret Atwood, Earle Birney, George Bowering, Joan Buckley , John Colombo, Doug Fetherling, Dermis Lee, l"1el Hurtig, Tom Ma.:cshall, John Newlove , Joe Rosenblatt, Peter Stevens, P.E. Tl~ i eau. There are also groups of correspondence dealing with specific publicat ions. There are manu script s of individual poems as Hell as books. The papers are arranged as fo11o'..I s : Series I Co rrespondence Se ries II Hanuscripts Section A Poems Section B Short Prose works: short stories, book reviews, articles Sec tion C Books Series III Personal. -3­ o~'RIES I CORRESPONDENCE 1955 - 1969 Correspondence is arran~ed chronologically, and is almost totally i ncoming letters. Correspondents include Milton Acorn, Earle Birney, George Bo·... ering, Jim Brown, Joan Buckley, C.B.C. officials such as Robert Heaver, George Woodcock, Fred Cogswell, John Colombo, RoD. Elverson, Northrop Fridge, Ralph Gustafson, David Helwig, l1el Hurtig, Pat LMe, Dorotby Livesay, Tom Marshall, Seymour I~ayne, John Newlove, Joe Rosenblatt, Peter Stevens. Pierre Elliott Trudeau and George Whalley. There is also a good deal of correspondence with publishers. There are fifteen incnes of general correspondence. Also, some correspondence related specifically to publication of various books may be found with the files on the publ ications. --Box 1 Folder 1 General Corre~pondencet 1955 - July 1966 .2 August 1966 - Sept. 1966 3 October 1966 4 November-December 1966 5 Januury-March 1967 r 6 April-June 1961 7 July 1967 8 August 1967 9 September 1967 10 Oc tober 1967 --Box 2 Folder 11 Novemb~r 1967 12 Dec embe r 1967 13 January 1968 14 February 1968 15 March 1965 16 April 1968 17 May 1968 18 June 1968 -I Fo l der 19 July 1968 20 August 1968 21 Septem'oer 1968 22 October 1968 23 Novembar-December 1968 Box ~ Folder 24 January 1969 25 February 1969 26 Marc h 1969 27 April 1969 28 Hay 1969 29 June 1969 30 July 1969 31 August 1969 32 September 1969 33 undated correspondence 34 unidentified correspondence 35 3 copi e ~ of Purdy Poems and Le tters found in the Lorne Pierce Correspondence of 1954, 20 typescript pages 36 Index to general oorrespondence. Ro:x 4 Series I I Manuscripts Section A Poetry These poems by Mr. Purdy are arranged alpbabetically by their titles, as follows: Folder 1 About being a member of our armed forceo , 2 typescript copies, 1 page each. Adul t arors 1 pages of holograph ms· 1 typescript of 2 pages. -5­ Folder 1 Advance of Childhood 2 pages of holograph rna. After the Miscarriage 2 typescript of one page. Album 5 pages holograpb notes, 1 page typescript. Ameliasburg Stew 2 pages holograph notes, 5' typescript copies, 1 page each. L I Anse au Meadows 4 pages holograph notes, 12 typescript copies, · l page each. The All~i-American 2 typescript copies, 1 page each Apollo's Gold and Silver Nose 21 pages holograph ms. 1 page type script. 2 Armistice Poem 28 pages holograph ms. 1 typescript of three p~es , 1 typescript of 4 pages. Aspect for a Self-Portrait 7 page holograph ms. 4 typescript copies. 3 Astronot 6 pages holograph ms. 2 typescript copies , 1 page each At Evergreen Cemetry 1 typescript copy of 1 page. At Harry's Bowladrome 6 pages holograph IDS. 3 typescript capie's, 1 page each. 1 At the Hovies 1 typescript copy of 1 page. At the Quinte 4 pages holograph rns. 3 typescript copies, 1 page each. At the Quinte Hotel 4 pages holograph ms. 4 typescript copies, 1 pa;e each. At Roblin Lake 1 typescript copy of 1 page. r . 4 At the Athenian Market 1 typescript of 2 paees Folder 4 The Athenian Acropolis 9 pages holograph ms. 1 typescript of 2 pages. Athas 2 pages holograpb ms. Athens Apartment 13 pages holograph ms. 4 typescript copies, 1 page each. Attempt 1 page holograph ms. 1 type,script of 1 page . Autumn 3 typescript copies, 1 page- each. 5 The Beach at Vera-dero 1 typescript of 1 page. Beaudoin 3 typescripts copies, 1 page each. Bells 3 pages ho lograph ms. 2 typescript copies, 1 page each. Belleville Bootl egger 3 page holograph ms . Beothuck Inrlian Skeleton in Gl ass Case 7 page holograph ms . 3 typescript cop1es, 1 page each. Bodrum the Danoe of Things 4 page ~olograph ms . 1 typescript of 1 page. Bird s of Canada 9 page holograpb ms. 3 t ypescr ipt copies of page 1 5 typescript copies of page 2. 6 Bored ."Iith ruins 13 page bologr~pb ms. 4 typescript copies, 2 pages each. Boundaries 5 typescript copies , 1 page each. Bread Naker's Song 3 page holograph ms. 3 typescript copies , 1 page eacb. Br..own Study 1 page nolo graph ms . 2 typescript cop ie ~, 1 page eacn. -7­ Folder 6 Bum 2 typescript oopies , 1 page each. 1 Canada 7 pagee of holograph ms. Canadian 1 typescript copy of 1 page Ca.tIadian Student in Ccunhri.dge , Mass. 4 page holograph ms . 2 typescript copies, 1 page each. Collecting the Square Root' of Minus O ~ e 2 paa'e hologragh ms . 1 typescript copy of 1 page, 1 typescript copy of 2 pages. Carrespondence 5 page holoer aph ms . 7 typescript copies, 1 page each. The Country North of Belleville 2 typescript copies, 2 pages each. Country Snowpl ow 1 typescr ipt copy of 1 page Crete 5 paee holograph rn a . 1 typescript copy of 1 page. Critique 1 typescr ipt copy of 1 page . 8 Dandelion Wi ne 2 page ho l ograph ms. 3 typescript cop1es , 1 pace each. Dark Landscape 2 typesoript copies, 2 pages each. The Deatb Mask 4 page ho l ograph ms . 1 typescript copy of 1 page . The Death of a Young Poet 1 typescript oOPY of 1 p~e . The Decimal Point 7 page holograph ms~ 1, typescript copy of 1 page . Detail 8 page holograph ms . 2 typescript copies, 1 page each. DOl11inion Day 1 typescript copy of 1 page -8­ Foluer 8 Dream of Havana 5 typescript copies, 1 page each. Dreamer 6 page holograph roSe 1 typescript copy of 1 page. Drink 1 typescript copy of 1 page The Dnmk Tank 5 p~ holograph ms. 2 typescript copies of 2 pages each, 4 typescript copies of 1 page each. Dy lan 1 typescript copy of 1 page. 9 Elegy for a Grandfather 11 page holograph ms. 9 typescript copies, 1 pilge each. Encounter in 1867 1 typescript copy of 2 Paces, 3 typescripts of one page each. Ephesus 11 page hologr~ph ms. 1 typescript copy of 3 pages. Epilogue 1 typescript copy of 1 p~e. Erik toe Red Falls off a Horse 4 page hologra.ph ms. Evergreen Cemetery 1 typeacript of 2 pages. 10 Fidel Castro in Revolutionary Square 3 page holograph ms. 1 typescript copy of 1 page . For - _ - 3 page holograph ms. 1 typesoript copy of 1 page. For P.M. Pierre 1 page holo&raph ms. 1 typescript copy of 1 paee. For 'tou 6 page holograph ms. 1 typescript copy of 1 page. Friends 6 p~e holograph ms. 1 typescript copy of 1 page. From a window 4 page holograph ms. 1 typescript copy of 1 page. Folder 10 Furtber Deponent Saitb Not 1 typescript copy, 2 pages. 11 The Game before the Egg 25 page. holograph ms. 13 pages typescript. Gerrard and Jarvis 9:05 p.m. Aug. 9/68 2 page holograph rna. 1 typescript copy of 1 page. A Ghoat in the House of Commons 4 ps.ge holograph ms. 8 typescript copies, 1 page each. Great Northern Peninsula 4 page holograph rna. 1 typescript copy of 1 page. Guilt of Words 2 page holograph rna. 1 typescript copy of 1 page.
Recommended publications
  • (Joe) Papers Coll 00505 1 Gift of Joe Rosenblatt, 2006 Extent

    (Joe) Papers Coll 00505 1 Gift of Joe Rosenblatt, 2006 Extent

    MS ROSENBLATT (Joe) Papers Coll 00505 Gift of Joe Rosenblatt, 2006 Extent: 14 Boxes (2 metres) Dates: 1990-2005 (bulk 2001-05) This collection consists of manuscript drafts and other material related to various writing projects by poet and visual artist Joe Rosenblatt, including Parrot Fever (published by Exile Editions, 2002) as well two as-yet unpublished works: Dog Poems, a collaboration with Vancouver-based poet Catherine Owen and photographer Karen Moe, and Hogg Variations/The Lunatic Muse, a collaboration with Barry Callaghan. The collection also contains a large volume of correspondence, primarily e-mail. Box 1 Parrot Fever 35 Folders Consists of manuscript drafts, correspondence and reproductions of Michel Christensen’s collages for Rosenblatt’s Parrot Fever, published by Exile Editions, 2002. Folders 1-27 Manuscript drafts Folder 1 “Earliest,” 2000 WP Folders 2 Early drafts, 2001 WP Folders 3-4 Early drafts, “Third Draft,” 2001 WP and WP with holograph revisions Folder 5 Early drafts, 2001 WP with holograph revision Folders 6-7 Early drafts, 2001 WP with holograph revisions Folder 8 Fourth draft, 2001 WP Folder 9 Draft (sent via e-mail to French translator Andree Christensen), 2002 1 MS ROSENBLATT (Joe) Papers Coll 00505 Folder 10 Draft, 2002 WP Folder 11 Draft, 2002 WP with holograph revisions (+ 2 e-mails) Folders 12-15 Drafts, 2002 WP Folder 16 Draft, 2002 WP with holograph revisions (+ 1 e-mail) Folder 17 Draft, 2002 WP (+ editorial correspondence) Folder 18 Draft, 2002 WP Folders 19-20 Drafts, 2002 WP with holograph revisions
  • Bailey Among the Modernists

    Bailey Among the Modernists

    5 PREFACE Rummagings, 20: A.G. Bailey among the Modernists My relationship with Alfred Bailey began in the late 1970s when he kindly agreed to serve on the Editorial Board of Canadian Poetry. I was never fortunate enough to meet him, but from that time until before his death in April 1997 we corresponded sporadically, and I benefitted greatly from his comments on my work and his learned and wise observations on such subjects as poetic form, the Fredericton members of the Confederation group,1 and the literary culture of New Brunswick and Canada. It was Bailey who pointed me in the direction of Arnold Toynbee’s remarks on “The Stimulus of Migration Overseas” in A Study of History” (1934-61) that provided the basis for my essay entitled “Breaking the ‘Cake of Custom’: The Atlantic Crossing as a Rubicon for Female Emigrants to Canada,” which appeared in Re(Dis)covering Our Foremothers (1989), Lorraine McMullen’s edition of the proceedings of a conference in the University of Ottawa’s Reappraisals: Canadian Writers series, so clearly I owe him a lasting debt of gratitude. I still deeply regret that in The Gay]Grey Moose: Essays on the Ecologies and Mythologies of Canadian Poetry, 1690-1990 (1992) I did not discuss Bailey’s “The Muskrat and the Whale” (1973), an ecologically resonant poem in his Thanks for a Drowned Island (1973) whose muskrat M. Travis Lane sees as a “lithe animal unobliged to make Great Pronouncements” and as typifying not just Bailey’s lyric voice, but a “certain kind” of Canadian poetry: “frisk[y],” “moderate,” “medium-conscious,” and characterized “by gaiety and seriousness together” (“A Sense of the Medium” 8).2 Several years before he died, Bailey sent me a copy of his “Literary Memories,” on the understanding that the manuscript was not for publication in Canadian Poetry but for interest as a source of information and insights about his evolution as a poet and thinker and about his involvement in the literary and intellectual currents of his day.
  • APRIL 2015 - NISSAN-IYAR 5775 Volume 7, Issue 8, April 2015 EDWARD DAVIS, Rabbi YOSEF WEINSTOCK, Associate Rabbi STEPHEN KURTZ, President

    APRIL 2015 - NISSAN-IYAR 5775 Volume 7, Issue 8, April 2015 EDWARD DAVIS, Rabbi YOSEF WEINSTOCK, Associate Rabbi STEPHEN KURTZ, President

    “ YOUNG ISRAEL OF HOLLYWOOD-FT. LAUDERDALE APRIL 2015 - NISSAN-IYAR 5775 Volume 7, Issue 8, April 2015 EDWARD DAVIS, Rabbi YOSEF WEINSTOCK, Associate Rabbi STEPHEN KURTZ, President (picture of Synagogue) , President President , BARATZ MICHAEL Rabbi ociate Ass WEINSTOCK, YOSEF Rabbi DAVIS, EDWARD 2 1 20 June , 10 Issue , 4 Volume 2 1 20 JUNE - 2 7 57 TAMMUZ - IVAN S Requested Service Change 5566 - (up-side down address and bulk mail inditia) 962 (954) Fax: 7877 - 966 (954) Phone: Permit No. 1329 No. Permit www.yih.org FACILITY FL. SO. 33312 FL Lauderdale, Ft. PAID POSTAGE U.S. Road Stirling 3291 Organization FT. LAUDERDALE FT. - HOLLYWOOD of ISRAEL YOUNG Nonprofit “ Page 2 Young Israel Hollywood-Ft. Lauderdale April 2015 SIMCHAS FROM OUR FAMILIES -MAZEL TOV TO: BIRTHS Suchie & Raisy Gittler on the birth of their granddaughter Sophia Rose to Daniel & Dorith Gittler Lenny & Ellen Hoenig on the birth of their grandson Mordechai to Yossi & Zisa Farkas Seth & Rebecca Kinzbrunner on the birth of their daughter Eliana Sara. Mazel Tov to grandparents Norman & Meryl Palgon and great-uncle & aunt Neil & Karen Lyman Michael & Nili Davis on the birth of their son Yehuda & Morit Soffer on the birth of their son Tzvi & Rachael Schachter on the birth of their grandson to Eli & Rachelle Schachter. Mazel Tov to great-grandparents Sam & Malca Schachter ENGAGEMENTS & MARRIAGES Larry &Tobi Reiss on the engagement of their daughter Nina to Mordechai Braun David & Linda Feigenbaum on the marriage of their daughter Kayla to Ariel Levy Jay & Chani Dennis on the marriage of their daughter Talia to Jake Freiman.
  • Dalrev Vol51 Iss4 Pp553 558.Pdf (3.200Mb)

    Dalrev Vol51 Iss4 Pp553 558.Pdf (3.200Mb)

    S idney J. Stephen ~ - - : ! • . ? " - • f ■ i - l '' ■ ■ - ADAM IN EXILE: A. M. KLEIN’S PORTRAIT OF THE POET AS LANDSCAPE Tom Marshall ends his introduction to A. M. Klein (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1970) by expressing the opinion that t Klein has bequeathed to his successors the task of creating their country. The emphasis on space and landscape in “Grain Elevator” and “Portrait of the Poet as Landscape” is echoed in the work of Margaret Atwood and Margaret Avison. Klein’s “nth Adam”, the unacknowledged legislator of a new Canada of the spirit, may be found in the poems of Gwendolyn MacEwen and joe Rosenblatt, and even in Cohen’s Beautiful Losers (p. 25). Marshall’s point is well taken, even if one does not completely agree with his closing remark that Klein is “the man who has come closer than any other Canadian Poet to greatness” (p 25). The phrase “nth Adam” is taken from “Portrait of the Poet as Landscape”, and this poem, coming as it does after nearly twenty years of writing and publishing poetry1 appears to present a view on what a poet’s role might be in the society in which he finds himself. For this reason alone, if for no other, the poem might be accorded a close reading, an exploration of the idea of the “poet-as-Adam” which seems to have been a personal reflection of the poet. •v Much of Klein’s work is soundly based in Jewish tradition, and his knowledge of (and esteem for) that tradition is always evident, though as M.
  • On the Road to Nijmegen— Earle Birney and Alex Colville, 1944

    On the Road to Nijmegen— Earle Birney and Alex Colville, 1944

    On the Road to Nijmegen— Earle Birney and Alex Colville, 1944– 1945 Hans Bak Introduction1 That the Canadian army played a significant role in liberating the Netherlands from German occupation between D-Day (June 6, 1944) and the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 5, 1945 has been well- documented by historians, diarists, and even— if to a lesser extent than the contributions made by the British and American forces—by novelists and poets (Bosscher; Davey; Zuehlke). The carefully maintained Canadian Military Cemeteries in the Netherlands— at Bergen op Zoom (968 graves), Groesbeek (2,400 graves) and Holten (close to 1,400 graves)—form a com- pelling memorial to the sacrifice of many Canadian lives. The Canadian war effort was decisive on at least three major fronts. In November 1944, in the Southwest, Canadians fought the Germans at the battle of Walcheren, to keep control over the Scheldt estuary and thus ensure open access to the Antwerp harbor for the Allied forces. In September 1944, in the Southeast, the Allied forces, predominantly American, marched through a narrow cor- ridor from Belgium into the Eindhoven area and on to Nijmegen, as part of Operation Market Garden— its aim being to secure the two strategic bridges, one at Nijmegen across the river Waal, the other at Arnhem, across the Rhine. The city of Nijmegen was technically liberated by the Allied forces on September 20, but with Operation Market Garden grinding to a halt just north of Nijmegen— the bridge at Arnhem proving, in Cornelius Ryan’s famous words “a bridge too far”— the city remained under German fire and shelling through the winter and spring of 1944– 1945.
  • Th€ Living Mosaic

    Th€ Living Mosaic

    $1.2$ pw C0Py Autumn, ig6g TH€ LIVING MOSAIC Articles BY PHYLLIS GROSSKURTH, JOHN OWER, MAX DORSINVILLE, SUSAN JACKELj MARGARET MORRISS Special Feature COMPILED BY JOHN REEVES, WITH POEMS BY YAR SLAVUTYCH, HENRIKAS NAGYS, WALTER BAUER, Y. Y. SEGAL, ZOFJA BOHDANOWICZ, ROBERT ZEND, ARVED VDRLAID, INGRIDE VIKSNA, LUIGI ROMEO, PADRAIG BROIN Reviews BY RALPH G USTAFSON , WARREN TALLMAN, JACK WARWICK, GEORGE BOWERING, DOUGLAS BARBOUR, VI C T O R HOAR, K E AT H F R ASE R , CLARA THOMAS, G AR Y GEDDES, ANN SADDLEMYER, G E O R G E WO O D C O C K , YAR SLAVUTYCH, W. F. HALL A QUARTERLY OF CRITICISM AND R6VI6W AN ABSENCE OF UTOPIAS LIITERATURES are defined as much by their lacks as by their abundances, and it is obviously significant that in the whole of Canadian writing there has appeared only one Utopian novel of any real interest; it is significant in terms of our society as much as of our literature. The book in question is A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder. It was written in the 1870's and published in 1888, eight years after the death of its author, James de Mille, a professor of English at Dalhousie, who combined teach- ing with the compulsive production of popular novels ; by the time of his death at the age of 46 he had already thirty volumes to his credit, but only A Strange Manuscript has any lasting interest. It has been revived as one of the reprints in the New Canadian Library (McClelland & Stewart, $2.75), with an introduction by R.
  • Selected Poems by Merle Amodeo

    Selected Poems by Merle Amodeo

    Canadian Studies. Language and Literature MARVIN ORBACH, MERLE AMODEO: CANADIAN POETS, UNIVERSAL POETS M.Sc. Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias. Associate Professor. University of Holguín, Cuba Abstract This paper aims at revealing universality in Marvin Orbach, an outstanding Canadian book collector and poet, and Merle Amodeo, an exquisite Canadian poet and writer. Orbach´s poems were taken from Redwing, book published by CCLA Hidden Brook Press, Canada in 2018; and Amodeo´s poems from her book After Love, Library of Congress, USA, 2014. Thus, the paper unveils for the general reader the transcendental scope of these two figures of Canadian culture. In view of the fact that they are able to recreate and memorialize their feelings and contexts where they live, and show their capacities to discern beyond the grid of nature, society and human experience, directly and masterfully exposing them, it can be safely stated that both Orbach and Amodeo reach that point where what is singular in them acquires universality, and in return what is universal crystallizes in their singularity. Key Words: universality, Orbach, Redwing, Amodeo, After Love Introduction My connection with universal poetry began during my college years. I enjoyed great English and American classics so much that I even memorized many of their poems. It proved very useful later in my professional career, as I would read excerpts from poems to my students in class. Canada, and Canadian poets, had less presence on the curricular map at the time. Fortunately, I had the chance to become acquainted with Canadian poetry through the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance (CCLA), founded by Richard and Kimberley Grove back in 2004.
  • Heritage Fair Projects - Guide to Sources

    Heritage Fair Projects - Guide to Sources

    Public Archives and Records Office of PEI P.O. Box 1000, Charlottetown Prince Edward Island C1A 7M4 (902) 368-4290 fax (902) 368-6327 www.gov.pe.ca/cca (Click Public Archives & Records Office) HERITAGE FAIR PROJECTS - GUIDE TO SOURCES GUIDELINES The Heritage Fair is meant to develop and increase awareness and interest in Canadian history. Your project must have a Canadian theme such as history, geography or heritage whether it is local, national or international. Your teacher will also have certain guidelines which you will need to follow. This booklet has been created to facilitate research for Heritage Fair projects. This guide contains research tips, sources of information, and sample topics. RESEARCH TIPS Getting started Identify a topic. This should be something of interest to you. Be as specific as possible, but be prepared to broaden your topic, especially if it is not truly regional. See Sample Topics. Give yourself plenty of time. Research takes time and sometimes you have to start over if there is not enough information available on your topic. Schedule your time to work on the project especially if working with a partner. Make an outline. Your outline is your strategy. Develop a series of questions relating to the information you need to find. Use these questions to organize and plan your research. It is a good idea to list keywords related to your topic (this will help in catalogue and online searches). Make a list of possible sources of information. Use a variety of sources but try to limit Internet and anecdotal sources. Browse general sources such as encyclopedias and handbooks to gather some background information on your topic.
  • A UNIFIED PERSONALITY Birney's Poems

    A UNIFIED PERSONALITY Birney's Poems

    A UNIFIED PERSONALITY Birney's Poems A.J.M. Smith w THE PUBLICATION this spring of Earle Birney's Selected Poems, a generous and representative gathering of a hundred poems, many of them long and ambitious and all of them interesting, we have an oppor- tunity to sum up a long, fruitful, and varied poetic career — a career which this volume indicates has grown steadily in significance. The poems from Birney's two most recent books, Ice, Cod, Bell or Stone and Near False Creek Mouth, have a power and mastery that was foreshadowed but only occasionally attained in David or Trial of a City, the works on which Birney's reputation has been founded and established. Though Birney has written two novels, edited an anthology, and published a good many scholarly articles, including an immensely valuable analysis of the poetic reputation of E. J. Pratt, it is as a poet, a teacher of poetry, and a publicist for poetry that he is chiefly and rightly known; and it is his poetry only that I propose to examine here. I don't remember when I first read a poem by Earle Birney. I know that when Frank Scott and I were preparing the manuscript for New Provinces in 1935 we had not heard of him, though we soon began to read the pieces that appeared in The Canadian Forum, of which Birney was literary editor from 1936 to 1940. It was not, however, until the publication of David & Other Poems in 1942 that it became apparent that a new poet had arrived, a poet who gave promise of being a worthy continuer of the tradition of heroic narrative established by Pratt and perhaps the precursor of a new school of modern poetry in Canada.
  • Frank Davey: Publications

    Frank Davey: Publications

    Frank Davey: Publications Books: Poetry: D-Day and After. Vancouver: Tishbooks, 1962. 32 pp. City of the Gulls and Sea. Victoria, 1964. 34 pp. Bridge Force. Toronto: Contact Press, 1965. 77 pp. The Scarred Hull. Calgary: Imago, 1966. 40 pp. Four Myths for Sam Perry. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1970. 28 pp. Weeds. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1970. 30 pp. Griffon. Toronto: Massassauga Editions, 1972. 16 pp. King of Swords. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1972. 38 pp. L’an trentiesme: Selected Poems 1961-70. Vancouver: Vancouver Community Press, 1972. 82 pp. Arcana. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1973. 77 pp. The Clallam. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1973. 42 pp. War Poems. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1979. 45 pp. The Arches: Selected Poems, edited and introduced by bpNichol. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1981. 105 pp. Capitalistic Affection!. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1982. 84 pp. Edward & Patricia. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1984. 40 pp. The Louis Riel Organ & Piano Company. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1985. 77 pp. The Abbotsford Guide to India. Victoria, B.C.: Press Porcépic, 1986. 104 pp. Postcard Translations. Toronto: Underwhich Editions, 1988. 32 pp. Postenska Kartichka Tolkuvanja, tr. Julija Veljanoska. Skopje: Ogledalo, 1989. 32 pp. Popular Narratives. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1991. 88 pp. The Abbotsford Guide to India, Gujarati translation by Nita Ramaiya. Bombay: Press of S.N.D.T. Women's University, 1995. 96 pp. Cultural Mischief: A Practical Guide to Multiculturalism. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1996. 70 pp. Dog. Calgary: House Press, 2002. 12 pp. Risky Propositions. Ottawa: above/ground press, 2005. 30 pp. Back to the War. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005. 126 pp. Johnny Hazard! Armstrong, BC: by the skin of me teeth press, 2009.
  • “To Make a Show of Concealing”: the Revision of Satire in Earle Birney's

    “To Make a Show of Concealing”: the Revision of Satire in Earle Birney's

    “To Make a Show of Concealing”: The Revision of Satire in Earle Birney’s “Bushed” Duncan McFarlane long with “David” and “The Damnation of Vancouver,” “Bushed” stands at the head of Earle Birney’s body of poetic work: in popular fame and literary craft, earnestly revered A“with a rather schoolboyish veneration” (Purdy 75) by critics and poets alike. The poem also marks a turning point in Birney’s career. It came just after the completion of his first novel, Turvey, appearing in the col- lection Trial of a City and Other Verse (1952), of which Northrop Frye says “that for virtuosity of language there has never been anything like it in Canadian poetry” (Bush 16), and in which A.J.M. Smith observes “a distinct advance on the simple and unified narrative ‘David’” (12). Yet to look solely at the finished poem is, in this case, to understand a fraction of its total significance. In the process of drafting and revis- ing “Bushed,” Birney transformed the poem from forthright satire into something else entirely. From its first draft — which has never before been analyzed — to its final version, “Bushed” moves between the two extremes that Frye nominates as central themes in Canadian poetry, “one a primarily comic theme of satire and exuberance, the other a pri- marily tragic theme of loneliness and terror” (Bush 168). The published “Bushed” has more in common with Macbeth than with MacFlecknoe, or with satire at all. The revisionary energies at work in Birney’s creative process are driven by an aesthetic bias expressed most clearly in his criticism on Chaucer, through which he expounds a remarkable and condemnatory view of satire as the adolescence of irony.
  • Dalrev Vol67 Iss4 Pp425 435.Pdf (5.693Mb)

    Dalrev Vol67 Iss4 Pp425 435.Pdf (5.693Mb)

    Larry McDonald The Politics of Influence: Birney, Scott, Livesay and the Influence of Politics The immediate focus of this essay is the manner in which most criti­ cism of Dorothy Livesay, Frank Scott and Ear le Birney has worked to obscure the influence of politics on their writing. More specifically (because the actual extent of political influence must be set aside for the moment), my aim is to demonstrate that dominant critical approaches have foreclosed any possibility of political influence on the writing by disguising, diminishing or eliminating the role that politics played in their lives. The narrow question of how these writers have been packaged for general consumption is best appreciated, however, if viewed as representative of the way that criticism has neglected a key aspect of Canadian literary history. I refer to a suppressed tradition of affiliations, remarkable in both range and intensity, between Cana­ dian writers and socialist ideology. The affiliations between our writers and socialist thought have taken many different forms: some have declared their socialist sympa­ thies in essays and journalism (Archibald Lampman, Margaret Lau­ rence, Kenneth Leslie); some worked long and hard for left-wing organizations or political parties (Earle Birney for the Trotskyists, Dorothy Lives ay for the Communists, Frank Scott for the CCF I NDP, David Fennario for the Socialist Labour Party); some stood for politi­ cal office (F. P. Grove, A. M. Klein, Phyllis Webb, Robin Mathews); some were involved with literary journals that promoted a socialist aesthetic (John Sutherland, Irving Layton, Louis Dudek, Patrick Anderson, Milton Acorn, Al Purdy, Miriam Waddington, Margaret Atwood).