E. K. Brown
E. K. Brown | |
---|---|
Born | Edward Killoran Brown (1905-08-15)August 15, 1905 Toronto, Ontario |
Died | February 24, 1953(1953-02-24) (aged 47) Chicago, Illinois |
Language | English |
Nationality | Canadian |
Citizenship | British subject |
Notable awards | Governor General's Award, Lorne Pierce Medal |
Edward Killoran Brown (August 15, 1905 – April 24, 1951), who wrote as E. K. Brown, was a Canadian professor and literary critic. He "influenced Canadian literature primarily through his award-winning book On Canadian Poetry (1943),"[1] which "established the standards of excellence and many of the subsequent directions of Canadian criticism." Northrop Frye called him "the first critic to bring Canadian literature into its proper context".[citation needed]
Life
E.K. Brown was born in Toronto,[2] the son of Winifred Killoran and Edward David Brown, a businessman.[1] He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1926, winning the Governor-General's Medal for Modern Languages and a scholarship to the Sorbonne.[3]
Brown taught at the University of Toronto from 1929 through 1941, except for two years chairing the University of Manitoba's English Department.[3] He was an associate editor of the Canadian Forum from 1930 to 1933, and published over 50 articles in that journal.[citation needed]
Between 1932 and 1941 Brown was an editor of the University of Toronto Quarterly.[citation needed] In 1936 he began the column "Letters in Canada", an annual survey in the Quarterly of the year's crop of Canadian poetry. He left the University of Toronto in 1941 to take a position at Cornell University,[3] but he continued to write "Letters in Canada" each year until 1950,[2] at which time the column was taken over by Northrop Frye. Brown later used two of his "Letters in Canada" essays – "The Contemporary Situation in Canadian Literature" (1938) and "The Development of Canadian Poetry 1880-1940" (1941) – in his 1943 book, On Canadian Poetry.[citation needed]
In 1941 Brown edited a special all-Canadian issue of prestigious Chicago magazine Poetry.[3]
From 1941 to 1944 Brown chaired Cornell University's English Department, except for six months on staff as a speechwriter to Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.[3]
In 1943 Brown and Duncan Campbell Scott edited Archibald Lampman's posthumous volume, At the Long Sault and Other Poems. Brown would also edit Scott's posthumous Selected Poems in 1951.
In 1945 Brown moved to the University of Chicago to chair its English Department.[3] From 1947 to 1951 he wrote a column, "Causeries," for the Winnipeg Free Press in which he published almost 50 essays on literary topics.[4] He died in 1951 of cancer.[3]
Writing
On Canadian Poetry
Brown is best remembered for his 1943 book, On Canadian Poetry. Of that book, the Canadian Encyclopedia says that "Brown was the first modern Canadian critic to establish a context for the study of 19th- and 20th-century Canadian poetry by identifying Canada's major poets (Archibald Lampman, D.C. Scott and E. J. Pratt), tracing their influences and closely defining the strengths of their verse."[2]
Prior to the appearance of On Canadian Poetry, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts was widely considered Canada's top poet (and certainly its top Confederation Poet), followed by his cousin, Bliss Carman. Not long before the volume came out, Brown had written to Duncan Campbell Scott that "our literary history must be rewritten and some old landmarks removed." In the book he removed several forthwith. Roberts received a mere four pages, and was praised mainly as a "breaker of trails". Carman received even less space; Brown saluted "the beauty of his music," but added that his poetry "as a whole is cloying." Of the other Confederation Poets, William Wilfred Campbell was cursorily dismissed as a "minor figure," while F.G. Scott and Pauline Johnson were not mentioned at all. In contrast, Brown devoted an entire chapter each to Lampman and D.C. Scott, building his own 'landmarks.'[5]
Brown's revisionist ranking of the Confederation Poets – Lampman and Campbell Scott on top, Roberts and Carman underneath, and Wilfred Campbell, Johnson, and F.G. Scott not even counted – "would become widely accepted and go unchallenged for several decades.[5]
Recognition
Brown received a Governor General's Award for non-fiction in 1943 for On Canadian Poetry.[6]
The Royal Society of Canada awarded E.K. Brown its Lorne Pierce Medal posthumously.[7]
Publications
Non-fiction
- E.M. Forster and the contemplative novel. Toronto, 1934.
- Edith Wharton, étude critique. Paris: E. Droz, 1935.
- Studies in the Text of Matthew Arnold's Prose Works. Paris: P. André, 1935.
- Swinburne: a centennial estimate. Toronto: 1937.
- On Canadian Poetry. Toronto: Ryerson, 1943.
- Matthew Arnold: A Study in Conflict. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1948.
- Rhythm in the Novel. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1950. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1978. ISBN 0-8032-1150-3 ISBN 0803260504
- Willa Cather: A Critical Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953.
- Responses and Evaluations: Essays on Canada. David Staines ed. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart (New Canadian Library), 1977. ISBN 0-7710-9252-0
- The Poet and the Critic: A Literary Correspondence Between D.C. Scott and E.K. Brown. Robert L. McCougall ed. McGill-Queen's U P, 1983. ISBN 0-88629-013-9 ISBN 0886290112
Translated
- Louis Cazamian, Carlyle. New York: Macmillan, 1932.
- Balzac, "Père Goriot". Père Goriot and Eugénie Grandet. New York: Modern Library, 1946.
Edited
- Matthew Arnold, Representative Essays. Toronto: Macmillan, 1936.
- Victorian Poetry.. Toronto: Nelson, 1942.
- Archibald Lampman, At the Long Sault and Other New Poems, Duncan Campbell Scott and E.K. Brown ed.. (Toronto: Ryerson, 1943).
- Matthew Arnold, Four Essays on Life and Letters. Harlan Davidson, 1947. ISBN 978-0-88295-006-8
- Charles Dickens David Copperfield. 1950.
- Duncan Campbell Scott, Selected Poems, E.K. Brown. ed. Toronto: Ryerson, 1951.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Open Library.[8]
References
- ^ a b W.H. New, Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002), 161–162.
- ^ a b c Neil Besner, "Brown, Edward Killoran," Canadian Encyclopedia (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988), 288.
- ^ a b c d e f g Douglas Bush, E.K. Brown and the Evolution of Canadian Poetry" Seewanee Review, 87:1 (Winter 1979), 186, Web, May 13, 2011.
- ^ "Brown, E.K." Encyclopedia of the Essay, Custom-Essay.net, Web, May 14, 2011.
- ^ a b John Coldwell Adams, "The Whirligig of Time Archived 2012-03-19 at the Wayback Machine," Confederation Voices, Canadian Poetry, UWO.ca, Web, Mar. 28, 2011.
- ^ "Governor General's Literary Awards: table of winners, 1936–1999". Online Guide to Writing in Canada.
- ^ Murcia, Daniella Barrera. "E.K. Brown, On Canadian Poetry, a Case Study". The Metropolitan University.
- ^ Search Results: E.K. Brown, Open Library, Web, May 13, 2011.
External links
Archives at | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
How to use archival material |
- Works by E. K. Brown at Faded Page (Canada)
- E.K. Brown in The Canadian Encyclopedia
- Edward Killoran Brown archival papers held at the University of Toronto Archives and Record Management Services
- v
- t
- e
- Thomas Beattie Roberton, TBR: Newspaper Pieces (1936)
- Stephen Leacock, My Discovery of the West (1937)
- John Murray Gibbon, Canadian Mosaic (1938)
- Laura Salverson, Confessions of an Immigrant's Daughter (1939)
- J. F. C. Wright, Slava Bohu (1940)
- Emily Carr, Klee Wyck (1941)
- Bruce Hutchison, The Unknown Country (1942)
- Edgar McInnis, The Unguarded Frontier (1942)
- E. K. Brown, On Canadian Poetry (1943)
- John Robins, The Incomplete Anglers (1943)
- Dorothy Duncan, Partner in Three Worlds (1944)
- Edgar McInnis, The War: Fourth Year (1944)
- Ross Munro, Gauntlet to Overlord (1945)
- Evelyn M. Richardson, We Keep a Light (1945)
- Frederick Phillip Grove, In Search of Myself (1946)
- Arthur R. M. Lower, Colony to Nation (1946)
- William Sclater, Haida (1947)
- Robert MacGregor Dawson, The Government of Canada (1947)
- Thomas Head Raddall, Halifax, Warden of the North (1948)
- C. P. Stacey, The Canadian Army, 1939-1945 (1948)
- Hugh MacLennan, Cross-country (1949)
- Robert MacGregor Dawson, Democratic Government in Canada (1949)
- Marjorie Wilkins Campbell, The Saskatchewan (1950)
- W. L. Morton, The Progressive Party in Canada (1950)
- Frank MacKinnon, The Progressive Party in Canada (1951)
- Josephine Phelan, The Ardent Exile (1951)
- Donald G. Creighton, John A. Macdonald, The Young Politician (1952)
- Bruce Hutchison, The Incredible Canadian (1952)
- J. M. S. Careless, Canada, A Story of Challenge (1953)
- N. J. Berrill, Sex and the Nature of Things (1953)
- Hugh MacLennan, Thirty and Three (1954)
- Arthur R. M. Lower, This Most Famous Stream (1954)
- N. J. Berrill, Man's Emerging Mind (1955)
- Donald G. Creighton, John A. Macdonald, The Old Chieftain (1955)
- Pierre Berton, The Mysterious North (1956)
- Joseph Lister Rutledge, Century of Conflict (1956)
- Thomas H. Raddall, The Path of Destiny (1957)
- Bruce Hutchison, Canada: Tomorrow's Giant (1957)
- Pierre Berton, Klondike (1958)
- Joyce Hemlow, The History of Fanny Burney (1958)
- [No award] (1959)
- Frank Underhill, In Search of Canadian Liberalism (1960)
- T. A. Goudge, The Ascent of Life (1961)
- Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962)
- J.M.S. Careless, Brown of the Globe (1963)
- Phyllis Grosskurth, John Addington Symonds (1964)
- James Eayrs, In Defence of Canada (1965)
- George Woodcock, The Crystal Spirit: A Study of George Orwell (1966)
- Norah Story, The Oxford Companion to Canadian History and Literature (1967)
- Mordecai Richler, Hunting Tigers Under Glass (1968)
- [No award] (1969)
- [No award] (1970)
- Pierre Berton, The Last Spike (1971)
- [No award] (1972)
- Michael Bell, Painters in a New Land (1973)
- Charles Ritchie, The Siren Years (1974)
- Marion MacRae and Anthony Adamson, Hallowed Walls (1975)
- Carl Berger, The Writing of Canadian History (1976)
- F. R. Scott, Essays on the Constitution (1977)
- Roger Caron, Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars (1978)
- Maria Tippett, Emily Carr (1979)
- Robert Bothwell and William Kilbourn, C.D. Howe (1979)
- Larry Pratt and John Richards, Prairie Capitalism (1979)
- Jeffrey Simpson, Discipline of Power: The Conservative Interlude and the Liberal Restoration (1980)
- George Calef, Caribou and the Barren-Land (1981)
- Christopher Moore, Louisbourg Portraits: Life in an Eighteenth- Century Garrison Town (1982)
- Jeffery Williams, Byng of Vimy: General and Governor General (1983)
- Sandra Gwyn, The Private Capital: Ambition and Love in the Age of Macdonald and Laurier (1984)
- Ramsay Cook, The Regenerators: Social Criticism in Late Victorian English Canada (1985)
- Northrop Frye, Northrop Frye on Shakespeare (1986)
- Michael Ignatieff, The Russian Album (1987)
- Anne Collins, In the Sleep Room (1988)
- Robert Calder, Willie: The Life of W. Somerset Maugham (1989)
- Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall, Trudeau and Our Times (1990)
- Robert Hunter and Robert Calihoo, Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers His Unsuspected Past (1991)
- Maggie Siggins, Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm (1992)
- Karen Connelly, Touch the Dragon (1993)
- John Livingston, Rogue Primate: An Exploration of Human Domestication (1994)
- Rosemary Sullivan, Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen (1995)
- John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization (1996)
- Rachel Manley, Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood (1997)
- David Adams Richards, Lines on the Water: A Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi (1998)
- Marq de Villiers, Water (1999)
- Nega Mezlekia, Notes from the Hyena's Belly (2000)
- Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Ingenuity Gap (2001)
- Andrew Nikiforuk, Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil (2002)
- Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (2003)
- Roméo Dallaire, Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2004)
- John Vaillant, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed (2005)
- Ross King, The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism (2006)
- Karolyn Smardz Frost, I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad (2007)
- Christie Blatchford, Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army (2008)
- M. G. Vassanji, A Place Within: Rediscovering India (2009)
- Allan Casey, Lakeland: Journeys into the Soul of Canada (2010)
- Charles Foran, Mordecai: The Life and Times (2011)
- Ross King, Leonardo and the Last Supper (2012)
- Sandra Djwa, Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page (2013)
- Michael John Harris, The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection (2014)
- Mark L. Winston, Bee Time: Lessons from the Hive (2015)
- Bill Waiser, A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan Before 1905 (2016)
- Graeme Wood, The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State (2017)
- Darrel J. McLeod, Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age' (2018)
- Don Gillmor, To the River: Losing My Brother (2019)
- Madhur Anand, This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart (2020)
- Sadiqa de Meijer, alfabet/alphabet: a memoir of a first language (2021)
- Eli Baxter, Aki-wayn-zih: A Person as Worthy as the Earth (2022)
- Kyo Maclear, Unearthing (2023)