Al Purdy
Encyclopedia
Alfred Wellington Purdy, OC, O.Ont
Order of Ontario
The Order of Ontario is the most prestigious official honour in the Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier David Peterson, the civilian order is administered by the Governor-in-Council and is intended to...

 (December 30, 1918 – April 21, 2000) was one of the most popular and important Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 poets of the 20th century. Purdy's writing career spanned more than fifty years. His works include over thirty books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four books of correspondence. He has been called the nation's "unofficial poet laureate
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...

" and "a national poet in a way that you only find occasionally in the life of a culture."

Biography

Born in Wooler, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 Purdy went to Albert College
Albert College (Belleville)
Albert College is a co-educational independent boarding school in Belleville, Ontario. It is the oldest co-ed boarding school in Canada. It currently has an enrollment of approximately 300 students representing 25 different countries...

 in Belleville, Ontario
Belleville, Ontario
Belleville is a city located at the mouth of the Moira River on the Bay of Quinte in Southern Ontario, Canada, in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. It is the seat of Hastings County, but is politically independent of it. and the centre of the Bay of Quinte Region...

, and Trenton Collegiate Institute in Trenton, Ontario
Trenton, Ontario
Trenton is a community in Southern Ontario in the municipality of Quinte West, Ontario, Canada. Located on the Bay of Quinte, it is the main population centre in Quinte West....

. He dropped out of school at 17 and rode the rails west to Vancouver. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
The history of the Royal Canadian Air Force begins in 1920, when the air force was created as the Canadian Air Force . In 1924 the CAF was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force and granted royal sanction by King George V. The RCAF existed as an independent service until 1968...

 during World War II. Following the war, he worked in various jobs until the 1960s, when he was finally able to support himself as a writer, editor and poet.

In 1957, Purdy and his wife Eurithe moved to Roblin Lake in Ameliasburgh, Ontario
Ameliasburgh, Ontario
Ameliasburg, also known as Ameliasburgh, is a small community in Prince Edward County, Ontario. The poet Al Purdy lived in a cottage on Roblin Lake, adjacent to Ameliasburg, for many years. Several of Purdy's poems, most famously including "Wilderness Gothic", mention features in and around...

 (south of Trenton in Prince Edward County
Prince Edward County, Ontario
Prince Edward County is a single-tier municipality and a census division of the Canadian province of Ontario.-Geography:Prince Edward County is located in Southern Ontario on a large irregular headland or littoral at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, just west of the head of the St. Lawrence River...

), where they built an A-frame cottage
A-Frame house
An A-frame is an architectural house style featuring steeply-angled sides that usually begin at or near the foundation line, and meet at the top in the shape of the letter A...

, and this became his preferred location for writing. In his later years, he divided his time between North Saanich, British Columbia
North Saanich, British Columbia
North Saanich is located on the Saanich Peninsula, approximately 25 km north of Victoria, British Columbia on southern Vancouver Island...

, and his cottage at Roblin Lake.

In addition to his poems and novel, Purdy's work includes two volumes of memoirs, the most recent of which was Reaching for the Beaufort Sea. He also wrote four books of correspondence, including Margaret Laurence - Al Purdy: A Friendship in Letters and radio and television plays for the CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

. He was writer-in-residence at several Canadian universities, and edited a number of anthologies of poetry.

He wrote the introduction to the last book of poetry by his friend Milton Acorn
Milton Acorn
Milton James Rhode Acorn , nicknamed The People's Poet by his peers, was a Canadian poet, writer, and playwright. He was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island....

, The Whiskey Jack. Purdy was also a long-time friend of American author Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...

. Bukowski once said: "I don't know of any good living poets. But there's this tough son of a bitch up in Canada that walks the line."

Al Purdy died in North Saanich, B.C., on April 21, 2000. His final collection of poetry, Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy, was released posthumously in the fall of 2000.

Memorial

A grass-roots movement to preserve Purdy's A-frame cottage in Ameliasburgh has been organized by Jean Baird (wife of poet George Bowering) and Purdy's publisher Howard White of Harbour Publishing, who together founded the A-Frame Trust with the intent of raising $1 million to preserve the house as a memorial to Purdy and a writing retreat for other writers.

Awards and recognition

Honours and awards Purdy received include the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 (O.C.) in 1982, the Order of Ontario
Order of Ontario
The Order of Ontario is the most prestigious official honour in the Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the advice of the Cabinet under Premier David Peterson, the civilian order is administered by the Governor-in-Council and is intended to...

 in 1987, and the Governor General's Award
Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields. The first was conceived in 1937 by Lord Tweedsmuir, a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction who created the Governor...

, in 1965 for his collection The Cariboo Horses, and again in 1986 for The Collected Poems of Al Purdy. The League of Canadian Poets gave Purdy the Voice of the Land Award, a special award created by the League to honour his unique contribution to Canada.

Purdy's collection of poems, Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems, 1962–1996, was chosen for inclusion in Canada Reads 2006
Canada Reads
Canada Reads is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC.-Overview:During Canada Reads, five personalities champion five different books, each champion extolling the merits of one of the titles. The debate is broadcast over a series...

, where it was championed by poet Susan Musgrave
Susan Musgrave
Susan Musgrave is a Canadian poet and children's writer. She was born in Santa Cruz, California to Canadian parents, and currently lives in British Columbia, dividing her time between Sidney and the Queen Charlotte Islands....

. On May 20, 2008, a large bronze statue of Purdy was unveiled in Queen's Park in downtown Toronto.

Poetry

  • The Enchanted Echo. Vancouver: Clarke & Stuart, 1944.
  • Pressed on Sand. Toronto: Ryerson, 1955.
  • Emu, Remember!. Fredericton, NB: U of New Brunswick P, 1956.
  • The Crafte So Longe to Lerne. Toronto: Ryerson, 1959.
  • The Blur in Between: Poems 1960-61. Toronto: Emblem, 1962.
  • Poems for All the Annettes. Toronto: Contact P, 1962.
  • The Cariboo Horses. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965.
  • North of Summer: Poems from Baffin Island. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1967.
  • About Being a Member of Our Armed Forces — 1967
  • Wild Grape Wine. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1968.
  • Love in a Burning Building. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1970.
  • The Quest for Ouzo. Trenton, ON: M. Kerrigan Almey, 1969.
  • Hiroshima Poems. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing P, 1972.
  • Selected Poems. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972. ISBN 0771071891
  • On the Bearpaw Sea. Jean Wong illus. Burnaby, BC: Blackfish Press, 1973. Toronto: Red Maple Foundation, 1974. ISBN 0969868707
  • Sex & Death. McLelland & Stewart. ISBN 0771072007, ISBN 0771072015
  • In Search of Owen Roblin. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1974. ISBN 0771072023
  • The Poems of Al Purdy. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976. ISBN 0771095104
  • Sundance at Dusk. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976.
  • A Handful of Earth. Coatsworth, ON: Black Moss P, 1977. ISBN 0887530222 ISBN 0887530230 ISBN 0887530249
  • At Marsport Drugstore. Sutton West, ON: Paget P, 1977. ISBN 0920348025
  • No Other Country. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977. ISBN 0771072082
  • Moths in the Iron Curtain. Cleveland, OH: Black Rabbit Press, 1977.
  • No Second Spring. Coatsworth, ON: Black Moss P, 1978. ISBN 0887530389
  • Being Alive: Poems 1958–78. Toronto: McClelland & Steward, 1978. ISBN 0771072074
  • The Stone Bird. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1981.
  • Bursting Into Song: An Al Purdy Omnibus. Windsor, ON: Black Moss, 1982. ISBN 0887530850
  • Birdwatching at the Equator: The Galapagos Island Poems. Sutton West, ON: Paget P, 1982. ISBN 0920348270
  • Morning and It's Summer. Quadrant Editions, 1983. ISBN 0864950322 ISBN 0864950225
  • Piling Blood. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1984. ISBN 0771072139
  • The Collected Poems of Al Purdy. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1986. ISBN 0771072155
  • The Woman on the Shore. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990. ISBN 0771072171
  • Collected Poems. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990. ISBN 9780771070310
  • Naked with Summer in Your Mouth. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994. ISBN 077107221X
  • Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1926-1996. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1996. ISBN 1550171488
  • To Paris Never Again. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1997. ISBN 1550171739
  • The Man Who Outlived Himself — 1999 (with Doug Beardsley
    Doug Beardsley
    Doug Beardsley is a Canadian poet and educator. He has collaborated with numerous other writers including Al Purdy, Theresa Kishkan and Charles Lillard....

    )
  • Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2000. ISBN 1550172255
  • Home Country: Selected Poems. Parry Sound, ON: Church Street P, 2000.

Prose

  • The Bukowski
    Charles Bukowski
    Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...

    /Purdy Letters 1964–1974
    . Seamus Cooney ed. Sutton West, ON: Paget Press, 1984. ISBN 0920348262 ISBN 0920348254 ISBN 0920348289
  • The Woodcock
    George Woodcock
    George Woodcock was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet, and published several volumes of travel writing. He founded in 1959 the journal Canadian Literature, the first academic journal specifically...

    /Purdy Letters 1964–1974
    . Toronto: ECW, 1988. ISBN 9781550220063
  • A Splinter in the Heart. a novel. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990. ISBN 077107218X
  • Reaching for the Beaufort Sea: An Autobiography. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1993. ISBN 1550170880
  • Margaret Laurence
    Margaret Laurence
    Jean Margaret Laurence, CC was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, one of the major figures in Canadian literature.- Early years :...

     — Al Purdy: A Friendship in Letters
    . Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994. ISBN 9780771052569
  • Starting from Ameliasburgh: The Collected Prose of Al Purdy. Sam Solecki ed. Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 1995. ISBN 1550171275
  • No One Else is Lawrence! (with Doug Beardsley
    Doug Beardsley
    Doug Beardsley is a Canadian poet and educator. He has collaborated with numerous other writers including Al Purdy, Theresa Kishkan and Charles Lillard....

    ). Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1998. ISBN 1550171941
  • Yours, Al: The Collected Letters of Al Purdy. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour, 1998. ISBN 1550173324

Edited

  • The New Romans: Candid Canadian Opinions of the U.S.. New York, Edmonton: St. Martin's P, Hurtig, 1968.
  • Fifteen Winds: A Selection of Modern Canadian Poems. Toronto: Ryerson, 1969.
  • Storm Warning: The New Canadian Poets. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1971. ISBN 0771071914
  • Storm Warning 2: The New Canadian Poets. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976. ISBN 077107204X

Posthumous

  • More Easily Kept Illusions. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier P, 2006. ISBN 9780889204904
  • The Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology - 2009

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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