Georges Maximilien Antoine Grube (2 August 1899 – 13 December 1982) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

scholar, university professor and democratic socialist political activist. Grube was a

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

and translator of

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

, Longinus and

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

. He was one of the founders of the New Democratic Party of Canada and ran unsuccessfully for election as an NDP candidate in Canadian federal elections. He was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on 2 August 1899, and was educated in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

.Horn (1980), p. 56 He served as a translator for the Belgium Army, attached to the British Expeditionary Force during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He attended

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

's Emmanuel College, where he received his master's degree in 1925.Podlecki (1994), pp. 236-238 He moved to Canada in 1928, to begin his career as a professor of classics at the

University of Trinity College Trinity College (occasionally referred to as The University of Trinity College) is a college federated with the University of Toronto, founded in 1851 by Bishop John Strachan. Strachan originally intended Trinity as a university of strong Angl ...

in the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

. He became the head of the classics department in 1931. Grube was a socialist, and serving in World War I turned him into a passionate pacifist. During his tenure at the UofT, he was involved in the Toronto branch of the

League for Social Reconstruction The League for Social Reconstruction (LSR) was a circle of Canadian socialists officially formed in 1932. The group advocated for social and economic reformation as well as political education. The formation of the LSR was provoked by events such ...

(LSR), serving as president from 1934 to 1935. When the LSR took control of the nearly bankrupt magazine, ''

Canadian Forum The ''Canadian Forum'' was a literary, cultural and political publication and Canada's longest running continually published political magazine (1920–2000). History and profile ''Canadian Forum'' was founded on 14 May 1920 at the University of T ...

'', Grube became its editor from 1937 to 1941. It was during his tenure at the magazine that it became the main media outlet for the LSR's publications.Horn (1980), pp. 14, 202 From 1944 to 1946, Grube was the President of the Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation's (CCF) executive, often acting as the public spokesperson for the party after its leader,

Ted Jolliffe Edward Bigelow JolliffeSmith, p. 195 (March 2, 1909 – March 18, 1998) was a Canadian social democratic politician and lawyer from Ontario. He was the first leader of the Ontario section of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and ...

, lost his seat in the Ontario general election on 4 June 1945. He also ran unsuccessfully several times for the House of Commons seat in what was then known as the Broadview electoral district during the 1940s. In August 1961, he was one of the co-chairs presiding over the New Democratic Party's founding convention in Ottawa. In 1968, he won the Award of Merit from the American Philological Association (APA) for his 1965 book ''The Greek and Roman Critics''. The APA gave him the award for "outstanding contribution to classical scholarship." Two-years later, while still the head of the classics department, he retired from UofT in 1970. He continued writing new translations of Plato's works until his death. In his later years, he had health issues, and he finally succumbed to them in Toronto on 13 December 1982.

Bibliography

* ''Plato's Thought''. London: Methuen, 1935. * ''The Drama of Euripides''. London: Methuen, 1941. * ''On Great Writing,'' translation of ''On the Sublime'', by Longinus. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1957. * ''On Poetry and Style,'' translation with an introduction of ''The Poetics'', by Aristotle. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1958. * ''A Greek Critic,'' translation with an introduction of ''On Style'', by Demetrius of Phaleron. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1961. * ''Meditations,'' translation of same by Marcus Aurelius. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963. * ''The Greek and Roman Critics''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965. * ''How Did the Greeks Look at Literature''. Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati Press, 1967. * ''The Republic''. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1974. * ''Plato's Meno''. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1976. * ''Plato's Phaedo''. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1977. * ''Five Dialogues,'' translation of ''Euthyphro'', ''Apology of Socrates'', ''Crito'', ''Meno'', and ''Phaedo'', by Plato. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1981.

Notes

References

* *

External links

*
George Grube oral history interview
held at th
University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grube, George Maximilian Anthony 1899 births 1982 deaths University of Toronto alumni Trinity College (Canada) alumni Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge