Edwin John Pratt

E. J. Pratt, 1944

Edwin John Dove Pratt, FRSC (February 4, 1882 – April 26, 1964), who published as E. J. Pratt, was a Canadian poet from Newfoundland.

Born in Western Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Pratt grew up in a variety of Newfoundland communities in Newfoundland, as his Methodist minister father was posted to various communities around the colony. Pratt himself was also ordained as a Methodist minister, but never served in the church.

He married Viola Whitney Pratt, herself a writer, and they had one daughter, Claire Pratt, who also became a writer and poet.

Pratt studied psychology at the University of Toronto, and taught psychology and English literature at Victoria College until 1953.

His first published work as a poet appeared in 1914, but his first memorable collection was 1923's Newfoundland Verse. Pratt ultimately became the foremost Canadian poet of the early twentieth century, winning Governor General's Awards in 1937, 1940 and 1952. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1930, was awarded the Society's Lorne Pierce Medal in 1940, and was editor of Canadian Poetry Magazine from 1936 to 1943.

Pratt's work often drew from Canadian and Newfoundland history.

A library at the University of Toronto currently bears his name, as does the University's E.J. Pratt Medal for poetry. Winners of the award include Margaret Atwood in 1961 and Michael Ondaatje in 1966.

Bibliography

• Rachel: a sea story of Newfoundland in verse, 1917
• Newfoundland Verse, 1923
• The Witches' Brew, 1925
• Titans, 1926
• The Iron Door: An Ode, 1927
• The Roosevelt and the Antinoe, 1930
• Verses of the Sea, 1930
• Many Moods, 1932
• The Titanic, 1935
• The Fable of the Goats and Other Poems, 1937
• Brebeuf and his Brethren, 1940
• Dunkirk, 1941
• Still Life and Other Verse, 1943
• They Are Returning, 1945
• Collected Poems of E. J. Pratt, 1946
• Behind the Log, 1947
• Ten Selected Poems, 1947
• Towards the Last Spike, 1952
• Collected Poems of E. J. Pratt (expanded edition), 1958
• Here the Tides Flow, 1962
• Selected Poems of E. J. Pratt, 1968
• Heroic Tales in Verse, 1977
• E. J. Pratt: Complete Poems (two volumes), 1989

External links

• E.J. Pratt page at the University of Toronto library

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