Canadian poet and professor
Ralph Barker Gustafson, CM (16 August 1909 – 29 May 1995) was a Canadian poet and professor at Bishop's University.
Biography.
He was born in Lime Ridge, near Dudswell, Quebec on August 16, 1909. His mother was British, his father, Carl Otto Gustafson, was a Swedish photographer. He was educated at Bishop's University, earning a B.A. (1st class honours and winner of the Governor General's medal along with many other awards) in 1929 and an M.A. in 1930, with a thesis on John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. He also completed a B.A. at Keble College, Oxford in 1933, an M.A. in 1963.
Over the years, Dr. Gustafson held a number of posts. He was music master, Bishop's College School, 1920–30; teacher of English St. Alban's School for Boys, Brockville, Ontario, 1933–34; tutor and journalist, London, England, 1935–38; British Information Services, New York, N.Y., 1942–46; Professor and Poet-In-Residence, Bishop's University, 1963–79 and music critic, C.B.C., since 1960. Dr. Gustafson wrote over twenty volumes of poetry and prose and edited several anthologies of verse. He died in 1995.
His views on poetry are documented in essays collected in "Plummets and Other Partialities" (1986), and in letters to W.W.E. Ross published as "A Literary Friendship" in 1984. He also was in contact with John Sutherland.
Gustafson's early poetry owes a significant debt to Gerard Manley Hopkins (as evidenced in "The Golden Chalice" (1935) and "Alfred the Great" (1937)), while Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and W. B. Yeats were important influences on his later work.
In 1942, Gustafson edited the "Anthology of Canadian Poetry" which developed into the "Penguin Book of Canadian Verse" in 1958, both volumes a reflection of his extensive studies on the history of Canadian poetry.
Recognition.
Gustafson won the Governor General's Award 1974 for "Fire on Stone".
He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1992.
He was awarded a D. Litt. from Mount Allison University in 1973, a D.C.L. from Bishop's University in 1977, and a D. Litt from York University in 1991.
"Winter Prophecies" (1998) is a documentary profile (29 min.) on Gustafson's life and art directed by Donald Winkler and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
References.
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