Al Purdy

Alfred Wellington Purdy Template:Post-nominals (December 30, 1918 – April 21, 2000) was a 20th-century Canadian free verse poet. Purdy's writing career spanned fifty-six years. His works include thirty-nine books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four books of correspondence, in addition to his posthumous works. He has been called English Canada's "unofficial poet laureate" and "a national poet in a way that you only find occasionally in the life of a culture."<ref>Brooke, James (April 26, 2000). Al Purdy, Poet, Is Dead at 81; A Renowned Voice in Canada. The New York Times. Retrieved on: April 18, 2008.</ref>

Biography

File:Toronto Al Purdy Memorial 02.jpg

Alfred Purdy Memorial “Voice of the Land” by Veronica and Edwin Dam de Nogales

Born in Wooler, Ontario, Purdy went to Albert College in Belleville, Ontario, and Trenton Collegiate Institute in Trenton, Ontario. He dropped out of school at 17 and rode the rails west to Vancouver. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force 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.<ref name = Bio>University of Toronto Library. Al Purdy, Biography. Canadian Poets Series. Retrieved on: April 19, 2008.</ref>

In 1957, Purdy and his wife Eurithe moved to Roblin Lake in Ameliasburgh, Ontario (southeast of Trenton, in Prince Edward County), where they built an A-frame cottage, and this became his preferred location for writing.<ref>The A-Frame Template:Webarchive</ref> In his later years, he divided his time between North Saanich, British Columbia, 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. He was writer-in-residence at several Canadian universities; contributed to Acta Victoriana, literary journal of Victoria College;<ref>http://actavictoriana.ca Template:Webarchive</ref> and edited a number of anthologies of poetry.<ref name = Bio/>

He wrote the introduction to the last book of poetry by his friend Milton Acorn, The Whiskey Jack. Purdy was also a long-time friend of American author Charles Bukowski. 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."Template:Citation needed

However, acclaim is not universal. Noted Canadian formalist poet James Pollock, when asked to "Name one poet, living or dead, it seems everyone loves but you," answered: "In Canada, Al Purdy. The emperor has no clothes."<ref>Medley, Mark (May 13, 2013). The Griffin Prize Q&A: James Pollock Template:Webarchive. The National Post. Retrieved on: May 13, 2013.</ref>

Al Purdy died in North Saanich. His final collection of poetry, Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy, was released posthumously in the fall of 2000.<ref name =" Bio"/>

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.<ref>Save Al Purdy's House Campaign Template:Webarchive</ref> The campaign is profiled in Brian D. Johnson's 2015 documentary film Al Purdy Was Here.<ref name=globe>"Al Purdy lives in the present in film premiering at TIFF". The Globe and Mail, September 14, 2015.</ref>

In 2016 it was revealed in Toronto Life that John Hofsess contributed to the assisted suicide of Purdy when the poet was dying of cancer.<ref>John Hofsess - Assisted Suicide in Canada</ref>

Awards and recognition

Honours and awards Purdy received include the Order of Canada (O.C.) in 1982, the Order of Ontario in 1987, and the Governor General's Award, 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, where it was championed by poet Susan Musgrave.<ref name = Bio/> On May 20, 2008, a large bronze statue of Purdy was unveiled in Queen's Park in downtown Toronto.

Publications

Lifetime

Poetry

• The Enchanted Echo. Vancouver: Clarke & Stuart, 1944.<ref name=openap/>
• Pressed on Sand. Toronto: Ryerson, 1955.<ref name=openap/>
• Emu, Remember!. Fredericton, NB: U of New Brunswick P, 1956.<ref name=openap/>
• The Crafte So Longe to Lerne. Toronto: Ryerson, 1959.<ref name=openap/>
• The Blur in Between: Poems 1960-61. Toronto: Emblem, 1962.<ref name=openap/>
• Poems for All the Annettes. Toronto: Contact P, 1962.<ref name=openap/>
• The Cariboo Horses. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965.<ref name=openap/>
• North of Summer: Poems from Baffin Island. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1967.<ref name=openap/>
• About Being a Member of Our Armed Forces — 1967
• Wild Grape Wine. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1968.<ref name=openap/>
• Love in a Burning Building. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1970.<ref name=openap/>
• The Quest for Ouzo. Trenton, ON: M. Kerrigan Almey, 1969.<ref name=openap/>
• Hiroshima Poems. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing P, 1972.<ref name=openap/>
• Selected Poems. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• On the Bearpaw Sea. Jean Wong illus. Burnaby, BC: Blackfish Press, 1973. Toronto: Red Maple Foundation, 1974.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Sex & Death. McLelland & Stewart.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN, Template:ISBN
• In Search of Owen Roblin. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1974.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• The Poems of Al Purdy. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Sundance at Dusk. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976.<ref name=openap/>
• A Handful of Earth. Coatsworth, ON: Black Moss P, 1977.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN Template:ISBN Template:ISBN
• At Marsport Drugstore. Sutton West, ON: Paget P, 1977.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• No Other Country. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Moths in the Iron Curtain. Abridged edition. Cleveland, OH: Black Rabbit Press, 1977.<ref name=openap/>
• No Second Spring. Coatsworth, ON: Black Moss P, 1978.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Being Alive: Poems 1958–78. Toronto: McClelland & Steward, 1978.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Moths in the Iron Curtain. Illustrated by Eurithe Purdy. Sutton West, ON: Paget P, 1979.<ref name=openap/>Template:ISBN Template:ISBN Template:ISBN Template:ISBN
• The Stone Bird. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1981.<ref name=openap/>
• Bursting Into Song: An Al Purdy Omnibus. Windsor, ON: Black Moss, 1982.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Birdwatching at the Equator: The Galapagos Island Poems. Sutton West, ON: Paget P, 1982.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Morning and It's Summer. Quadrant Editions, 1983.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN Template:ISBN
• Piling Blood. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1984.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• The Collected Poems of Al Purdy. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1986.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• The Woman on the Shore. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Two Poems - Broadside - Pie Tree Press 1990 - Limited to 100 copies & 26 lettered copies
• Collected Poems. [Audio cassette.] Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Naked with Summer in Your Mouth. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1996.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• To Paris Never Again. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1997.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• The Man Who Outlived Himself — 1999 (with Doug Beardsley)
• Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2000.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Home Country: Selected Poems. Parry Sound, ON: Church Street P, 2000.<ref name=openap/>

Prose

• The Bukowski/Purdy Letters 1964–1974. Seamus Cooney ed. Sutton West, ON: Paget Press, 1984.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN Template:ISBN Template:ISBN
• The Woodcock/Purdy Letters 1964–1974. George Galt ed. Toronto: ECW, 1988.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• A Splinter in the Heart. a novel. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Reaching for the Beaufort Sea: An Autobiography. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1993.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Margaret Laurence — Al Purdy: A Friendship in Letters. John Lennox ed. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Starting from Ameliasburgh: The Collected Prose of Al Purdy. Sam Solecki ed. Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 1995.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• No One Else is Lawrence! (with Doug Beardsley). Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1998.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Yours, Al: The Collected Letters of Al Purdy. Sam Solecki ed. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour, 2004.<ref name=openap>Search results: Al Purdy, Open Library, May 13, 2011.</ref> Template:ISBN
• We Go Far Back in Time: The Letters of Earle Birney and Al Purdy, 1947-1987. Nicholas Bradley ed. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour, 2014. Template:ISBN

Edited

• The New Romans: Candid Canadian Opinions of the U.S.. New York, Edmonton: St. Martin's P, Hurtig, 1968.<ref name=openap/>
• Fifteen Winds: A Selection of Modern Canadian Poems. Toronto: Ryerson, 1969.<ref name=openap/>
• Storm Warning: The New Canadian Poets. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1971.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• Storm Warning 2: The New Canadian Poets. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1976.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN

Posthumous

• More Easily Kept Illusions. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier P, 2006.<ref name=openap/> Template:ISBN
• The Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology - 2009
• Unexplored Country - 2009, Alden Press, Clinton, B.C. 3 Broadside poems. Limited to 60 copies.

In media

A CBC Radio recording of a 1968 reading by Purdy of his poem Quinte Hotel at a gathering conference of Canadian poets in Toronto was adapted as an animated short film At the Quinte Hotel, which received the Canadian Film Institute Award for best Canadian animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.<ref name="utoronto">Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• Canadian literature
• Canadian poetry
• List of Canadian poets

External links

• CBC Digital Archives — Al Purdy, An Uncommon Poet
• Al Purdy, Milton Acorn, and Eli Mandel
• Al Purdy - A Permanent Tribute - Statue of Canada’s Favourite Poet Unveiled in Queen’s Park
• Bravo!FACT short film based on the poem At the Quinte Hotel viewable online
• A.W. Purdy Digital Archive hosted by the University of Saskatchewan Special Collections
• Canadian Poetry Online: Al Purdy - Biography and six poems (At Evergreen Cemetery, Lu Yu (AD 1125-1209), Married Man's Song, The Dead Poet, Listening to Myself, The Last Picture in the World)
• Al Purdy fonds at Queen's University Archives