Alfred Earle Birney

Background

Alfred Earle was born on May 13, 1904, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Education

Bachelor of Arts, University B.C., 1926;

postgraduate, University of California-Berkeley, 1927-1930;

Master of Arts, University Toronto, 1927;

Doctor of Philosophy, University Toronto, 1936;

postgraduate, U. London, 1934-1935;

Doctor of Laws, University Alberta, 1965;

Doctor of Literature, McGill University, 1979;

Doctor of Literature, U. Western Ontario, 1984;

Doctor of Literature, U. B.C., 1987.

Career

Summer school lecturer, U. B.C., 1927-1937;

instructor, U. Utah, 1930-1932, 33-34;

lecturer, U. Toronto, 1936-1940;

assistant professor, U. Toronto, 1940-1942;

Professor of English, U. B.C., 1946-1962;

head department creative writing, U. B.C., 1963-1965;

writer-in-residence, U. Toronto, 1965-1967;

writer-in-residence, U. Waterloo, Ontario, 1967-1968;

writer-in-residence, U. Western Ontario, 1981-1982;

Regents professor, University of California at Irvine, 1968. Supervisor foreign language broadcasts to Europe Radio Canada, 1945-1946. Visiting professor.creative writing U. Oregon, 1961.

Literature adviser Canada Council, 1965-1967.

Achievements

• Subject of the documentary by National Film Board of Canada, "Earle Birney: Portrait of a Poet" 1982. (new poems) Copernican Fix, 1985. (selected radio plays) Words on Waves, 1985. Essays on Chaucerian Irony, 1985. Poems have been set to music on three albums by Nexus percussion group (1982). Poem, David, adapted for film drama (1983).
  
  Decorated officer Order of Canada. Recipient Governor-General's medals for poetry, 1943, 46, Stephen Leacock medal for humor, 1949, Borestone Mount poetry 1st prize, 1951, Pierce medal for literature, 1953, Canada Council medal for services to arts, 1968. Canadian Government fellow France, 1953.
  
  Nuffield fellow England, 1958-1959. Canada Council traveling fellowships and grants to Latin American, 1962-1963. Canada Council traveling fellowships and grants to Latin American Australia and.
  
  New Zealand, 1968; West and East Africa, 1972. Europe and; South Asia, 1974-1975.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Rag & bone shop

    (First edition. No hardcover edition. Book-plate on the in...)

  • Rag and Bone Shop: Poems
  • The Bear on the Delhi Road
  • Cow Jumped Over the Moon (Aspects of English)
  • Memory no servant
  • Near False Creek Mouth Inscribed

Membership

Served with Canadian Army, 1942-1945. Fellow Royal Society Canada.

Connections

Married Esther Bull, March, 1940 (divorced 1978). 1 son, William Laurenson.

Father:

William George Birney

Mother:

Martha Stout (Robertson) Birney

Spouse:

Esther Bull