Douglas Lochhead | |
|---|---|
 Douglas Lochhead in 2008 | |
| Born | March 25, 1922 Guelph, Ontario |
| Died | March 15, 2011 (aged 88) Sackville, New Brunswick |
| Occupation | Poet, bibliographer, librarian, professor |
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Alma mater | McGill University |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable works | High Marsh Road, Dykelands, Love on the Marsh |
| Spouse | Jean St. Clair Beckwith (1924-1991) |
Douglas Grant Lochhead (pronounced Lock-heed) FRSC (March 25, 1922 – March 15, 2011) was a Canadian poet, academic librarian, bibliographer and university professor who published more than 30 collections of poetry over five decades, from 1959 to 2009.[1][2] He was a founding member and vice-chairman of the League of Canadian Poets and was elected its first secretary in 1968. He served as president of the Bibliographical Society of Canada (1974–76), and was a member of bibliographical societies in the U.S. and Britain. In 1976, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[2][3][4]
Lochhead's best-known book, High Marsh Road, a collection of 122 short poems chronicling his daily walks across the Tantramar Marshes in southeastern New Brunswick, earned him a nomination for a Governor General's Award in 1980. In 2005, when High Marsh Road/La Strada di Tantramar was awarded the Carlo Betocchi International Poetry Prize, Lochhead became the first non-Italian writer to win it.[5][6] He also received the Alden Nowlan Award for Excellence in English-language Literary Arts in 2001 and the following year, became the first poet laureate for the town of Sackville, New Brunswick, where he had lived since joining the faculty at Mount Allison University in 1975.[1][2] The first 30 poems in High Marsh Road are posted on telephone poles leading from Sackville's main downtown intersection toward the marshes that so often stirred "the red sea of his singing".[2][7]
During his academic career, Douglas Lochhead held library appointments at several universities including Cornell, Dalhousie and York, before his appointment as Founding Librarian of Massey College at the University of Toronto in 1963. After he became Davidson Chair of Canadian Studies at Mount Allison in 1975, Lochhead continued writing and publishing his many collections of poetry.[2][8]
"I think Douglas thought of poetry as a form of resistance," his friend and fellow poet Peter Sanger told The Globe and Mail following Lochhead's death in 2011. "A form o[f] resistance to non-poetic thinking, to tyranny, to unimaginative views of the world."[1]
- ^ a b c Shanahan, Noreen (14 April 2011). "Douglas Lochhead: Librarian was the poet laureate of Sackville". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Thompson, Jocelyne. "In Memoriam: A Tribute to Douglas Lochhead" (PDF). The Atlantic Provinces Library Association. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
- ^ Struthers, Betsy. "A Selective History of the League of Canadian Poets" (PDF). The League of Canadian Poets. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Galewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Sybertooth Publishing Inc. "About Douglas Lochheed". Archived from the original on February 14, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
- ^ McGill News Alumni Quarterly. "Alumnotes". McGill University. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
- ^ Lochhead, Douglas. (1980, 1996) High Marsh Road: lines for a diary. Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, September 4.
- ^ Boone, Laurel (January 1988). "Confessions of an Unrepentant Generalist: An Interview With Douglas Lochhead". Studies in Canadian Literature. Studies in Canadian Literature, University of New Brunswick. Retrieved March 27, 2016.