 Following studies in psychology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, he worked for a time as a clinical psychologist in St. John's, and then as an editor with the Queen's Printer in Ottawa before returning to Memorial as a Ph.D. student in the early 1970s.In 1975, Elliott joined the faculty of the Sir Wilfred Grenfell College campus of Memorial University, where he taught until his retirement in 1989.After an initial burst of creativity, Elliott wrote little between the late 1950s and the late 1970s.