Harold Standish

Harold Edwin Standish (24 September 1919 – 15 April 1972) was a

literary form and skeptical views of Canadian nationalism at a time, during the 1950s and 60s, when many Canadians sought to establish a distinctive literary tradition for Canada.^[1] Largely forgotten in recent years, his work remains significant for its vivid evocations of working class life in rural Southern Ontario

.

Early life

Standish was born in

tobacco farms in the area around Lake Erie, an experience that would later influence the setting of his first novel, The Golden Time

.

Literary career

A voracious reader since childhood, Standish began writing poetry in his teens but did not consider it a serious pursuit until after a chance meeting with the young Earle Birney in Vancouver.[4] Birney encouraged Standish to write more intensely and introduced him to the work of Wyndham Lewis, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot and other writers that came to influence Standish's work. While working as a laborer in Ontario, Standish kept copious drafts of poems and notes for short stories, but lack of formal education prevented him from developing the distinctive style he sought.^[5] In 1943, Standish moved back to his birthplace of Toronto, where he enrolled in English literature courses at the University of Toronto while writing and working at a variety of temporary jobs.

A number of Standish's poems appeared in such

little magazines as Contemporary Verse and Northern Review,^[6] and he released his first self-financed collection, a mimeographed chapbook entitled Stripped Bare in the Afterlife in 1943. Despite the chapbook having sold a mere sixty copies,^[7] Standish managed to land a publishing agreement with the tiny imprint Bluenose Books for the release of his first full-length monograph

, Neighbours and Other Poems (1944). Several other collections followed over the next two decades.

By the late forties, Standish had added fiction to his creative pursuits. His first novel, The Golden Time, published by

periodicals

that were collected later in A View From the Edge.

Decline and death

Standish was stricken with

re-prints of Standish's original works have appeared,^[12]

although a final selection of poems and essays, Harold Standish: A Retrospective, appeared in 1976.

Bibliography

Fiction

The Golden Time (1949)
Blues For Loretta (1954)

Non-fiction

A View from the Edge (essays, 1971)

Poetry

Stripped Bare in the Afterlife (chapbook, 1943)
Neighbours and Other Poems (1944)
The Forest of Fear (1947)
Amelia's Gone (1951)
The Wonder of the Wind (1955)
The Lake of Souls and Other Poems (1957)
New and Newer Poems (1962)
A Crisis at Heart (1970) (U.K. title: August Moon, 1971)
Selected Poems (1971)
Harold Standish: A Retrospective (poems and essays, posthumous 1976)

Notes

^ Scott, 3
^ Scott, 15; McKenzie, 119
^ Viger, 55
^ Scott, 14
^ Scott, 26
^ Archives of Contemporary Verse and Northern Review are available at Library and Archives Canada, and various university libraries in Canada.
^ McKenzie, 119
^ Scott, 114. Standish blamed the poor reception of his work on the critical establishment, citing its tendency to "credit false authority with its assessments of what is valid and not valid in the literature of this country." Standish, qtd. in Viger, 57.
^ Scott, 154; McKenzie, 130.
^ Scott, 154
^ Waddington, xii. Scott quotes George Woodcock making a comparable statement, defending his work against several earlier critics: "Some have called Standish's work a sham, but any astute reader will recognize his work for what it really is--a revelation about what we know, and think we know, about Canadian literature." Scott, 156.
^ Scott, 185

References

McKenzie, Marwan. "'Trembling in Eden': Echoes of Kierkegaard in the Poetry of H.E. Standish." Journal of Canadian Studies 15.4 (1975): 118–36.
Waddington, Miriam. Introduction to The Selected Poems of Harold Standish. Ottawa: Algonquin Press, 1971.
Scott, Douglas M. Harold Standish: A Life in Letters. Toronto: Ryerson, 1970.
Viger, Maureen, ed. Coming of Age in Canada: Poets of the Fifties. Toronto: Contact Press, 1960.

External links

Poems by Harold Standish

[1] Scott, 3

[2] Scott, 15; McKenzie, 119

[3] Viger, 55

[4] Scott, 14

[5] Scott, 26

[6] Archives of Contemporary Verse and Northern Review are available at Library and Archives Canada, and various university libraries in Canada.

[7] McKenzie, 119

[8] Scott, 114. Standish blamed the poor reception of his work on the critical establishment, citing its tendency to "credit false authority with its assessments of what is valid and not valid in the literature of this country." Standish, qtd. in Viger, 57.

[9] Scott, 154; McKenzie, 130.

[10] Scott, 154

[11] Waddington, xii. Scott quotes George Woodcock making a comparable statement, defending his work against several earlier critics: "Some have called Standish's work a sham, but any astute reader will recognize his work for what it really is--a revelation about what we know, and think we know, about Canadian literature." Scott, 156.

[12] Scott, 185

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