Leo Kennedy

Background

John Leo Kennedy was born on August 22, 1907 in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom. He emigrated with his family - his father, John Kennedy, a ship chandler, and his mother, Lillian Bullen - to Canada in 1912.

Education

Leo attended night school at University of Montreal. He quit school at 14.

Career

Kennedy took to the sea and then had a variety of jobs. Most of his life he worked as a copywriter in the United States and after he lived in Montréal, writing poems for children, satiric verse and broadsides. In 1933 he published The Shrouding (poems). He was part of a politically active circle of intellectuals in Montréal and Toronto in the 1930s and an editor of New Frontier 1936-38. Pseudonyms he was known to use include Arthur Beaton, Leonard Bullen, William Crowl, Edgar Main, and Peter Quinn.

He died in 2000 aged 92 in Pasadena, California, United States.

Achievements

• Kennedy helped change the direction of Canadian poetry in the 1920s. He contributed to the McGill Literary Supplement, McGill Fortnightly Review and Canadian Mercury.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Shrouding

Membership

Kennedy was a member of the Montreal Group of modernist poets.

• the Montreal Group , Canada

Personality

Leo had a wit and forceful personality.

Connections

Kennedy was married to Miriam Esther Nicheman Kennedy. They had three children.

Father:

John Kennedy

Mother:

Lillian Bullen

Spouse:

Miriam Esther Nicheman Kennedy

Daughter:

Deborah Ruth Kennedy

Son:

Peter Kennedy

Son:

Stephen Kennedy

Friend:

A.J.M. Smith

Friend:

F.R. Scott

Friend:

A.M. Klein

Friend:

Leon Edel

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields: 178