The Ivory Thought: Essays on Al Purdy (Reappraisals: Canadian Writers #32) (Paperback)
If one poet can be said to be the Canadian poet, that poet is Al Purdy (1918-2000). Numerous eminent scholars and writers have attested to this pre-eminent status. George Bowering described him as "the world's most Canadian poet" (1970), while Sam Solecki titled his book-length study of Purdy The Last Canadian Poet (1999). In The Ivory Thought: Essays on Al Purdy, a group of seventeen scholars, critics, writers, and educators appraise and reappraise Purdy's contribution to English literature. They explore Purdy's continuing significance to contemporary writers; the life he dedicated to literature and the persona he crafted; the influences acting on his development as a poet; the ongoing scholarly projects of editing and publishing his writing; particular poems and individual books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction; and the larger themes in his work, such as the Canadian North and the predominant importance of place. In addition, two contemporary poets pay tribute with original poems.
Gerald Lynch is the general editor of the Reappraisals: Canadian Writers series on Canadian literature (University of Ottawa Press), and Professor of English at the University of Ottawa. Shoshannah Ganz has published work on E.J. Pratt, Elizabeth Smart, Miriam Waddington, and Rachel Korn among others. She teaches English at Sir Wilfrid Grenfell College, Memorial University. Josephene Kealey is a doctoral student in English at the University of Ottawa. She is writing a thesis comparing the short story cycles of a number of Canadian and American writers.
"The Ivory Thought [is] an excellent and information collection, geared toward the specialist but certainly accessible by the general reader." -- Canadian Literature