James Crerar Reaney, (September 1, 1926 – June 11, 2008) was a Canadian poet, playwright,

librettist A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...

, and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

,University of Waterloo
/ref> "whose works transform small-town

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

life into the realm of dream and symbol." Reaney won

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's highest literary award, the

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual List of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. Th ...

, three times and received the Governor General's Award for Poetry or Drama for both his poetry and his drama.

Life

Reaney was born on a farm in Easthope near Stratford, Ontario to James Nesbitt Reaney and Elizabeth Henrietta Crerar.Richard Stingle, James Reaney and his Works (ECW Press, 1990) Almost all of Reaney's poems, stories, and plays are articulations of where he grew up. At a young age he was interested in theatre, and created a puppet show for children while in his early teens.

Poet and story writer

Reaney studied English at

University College, University of Toronto University College, popularly referred to as UC, is a constituent college of the University of Toronto, created in 1853 specifically as an institution of higher learning free of religious affiliation. It was the founding member of the universit ...

, receiving his M.A. in 1949.James Reaney
" ''Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature,'' Answers.com, Web, Apr. 11, 2001. The same year he also received the

, the first of three, at the age of 23, for his first book of poetry, ''Red Heart.''.CBC News
/ref> Reaney married fellow poet Colleen Thibaudeau on December 29, 1951 in St. Thomas. He has three children: two sons, James Stewart (born 1952) and John Andrew (1954), born in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

and a daughter, Susan Alice Elizabeth, born 1959 in

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

. After teaching English at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Northrop Frye Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, '' Fearful Symm ...

was his thesis supervisor. Also in 1958 Reaney released a second book of poetry, ''A Suit of Nettles'', which again won the Governor-General's Award.Catherine Ross,
Reaney, James Crerar
" ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (Edmonton:Hurtig, 1988), 1831. During the 1940s and 1950s Reaney also wrote and published short stories. While not published in book form until years later, his stories were influential in establishing the style of writing later called

Southern Ontario Gothic Southern Ontario Gothic is a subgenre of the Gothic novel genre and a feature of Canadian literature that comes from Southern Ontario. This region includes Toronto, Southern Ontario's major industrial cities (Windsor, London, Hamilton, Kitchener ...

(later made world-famous by

Alice Munro Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move f ...

). In 1960 Reaney began teaching in the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

's English Department. Also in 1960 he put out the first issue of his journal,''Alphabet: A Semi-Annual Devoted to the Iconography of the Imagination,'' which he would edit until 1971. This journal published a variety of poets, including

Jay Macpherson Jean Jay Macpherson (June 13, 1931 – March 21, 2012) was a Canadian lyric poet and scholar. '' The Encyclopædia Britannica'' calls her "a member of 'the mythopoeic school of poetry,' who expressed serious religious and philosophical themes in ...

, Margaret Atwood,

Al Purdy Alfred Wellington Purdy (December 30, 1918 – April 21, 2000) was a 20th-century Canadian free verse poet. Purdy's writing career spanned fifty-six years. His works include thirty-nine books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four b ...

Milton Acorn Milton James Rhode Acorn (March 30, 1923 – August 20, 1986), nicknamed ''The People's Poet'' by his peers, was a Canadian poet, writer, and playwright. Early life He was born in Prince Edward Island, and grew up in Charlottetown. He joined th ...

, and bp Nichol, and work from such artists as

Tony Urquhart Anthony Morse Urquhart, LL.D. (April 9, 1934 – January 26, 2022) was a Canadian painter. He was recognized in the late 1950s and early 1960s as one of Canada's pioneering abstractionists, having been variously linked with the Toronto painters ...

, and Greg Curnoe.

Playwright

For Reaney, the new decade also coincided with "a shift of emphasis from poetry to the public and communal form of drama," starting with ''The Killdeer''. "Though he had been interested in drama since childhood, he was encouraged by a friend to write a piece for the University of Toronto's Alumnae Theatre and the work he created, ''The Killdeer'', launched his drama career (and won a prize in the

Dominion Drama Festival The Dominion Drama Festival was an organisation in Canada that sought to promote amateur theatre across the country. It lasted, in one form or another, from 1932 until 1978. Founding The Dominion Drama Festival (DDF) was devised in 1932 as a wa ...

)."Reaney, James
" ''Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia'', CanadianTheatre.com, Web, Apr. 11, 2011, In

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

he won the Governor General's Award for Poetry or Drama a third time, this time for both his newest book of poetry, ''Twelve Letters to a Small Town,'' and his first book of plays, ''The Killdeer and Other Plays''. Reaney "followed up ''The Killdeer'' with '' Colours in the Dark'' (1969), ''Listen to the Wind'' (1972), ''Masks of Childhood'' (1972) and plays for children." His play ''Colours in the Dark'' was produced at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 1967. From 1973 to 1975 Reaney wrote the trilogy The Donnellys, which the ''Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia'' calls "one of the nation's most important dramas." The three plays debuted at Toronto's

Tarragon Theatre The Tarragon Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and one of the main centers for contemporary playwriting in the country.

, directed by Keith Turnbull. ''The St. Nicholas Hotel,'' Part II of the trilogy, won the Chalmers Award. The Donnellys toured nationally in 1975, from Halifax to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

with the NDWT Theatre Company, again with Turnbull directing.The Donnellys
" ''Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia'', CanadianTheatre.com, Web, Apr. 11, 2011, As well, Reaney coauthored several operas with musician John Beckwith, including ''Night-Blooming Cereus'' (1960), ''The Shivaree'' (1982), and ''Crazy To Kill'' (1988). Other notable Reaney plays include ''Names and Nicknames'', which premiered at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in 1963, directed by

John Hirsch John Stephen Hirsch, OC (; May 1, 1930 – August 1, 1989) was a Hungarian-Canadian theatre director. He was born in Siófok, Hungary to József and Ilona Hirsch, both of whom were murdered in the Holocaust along with his younger brother I ...

and Robert Sherrin); and ''Alice Through the Looking Glass'', which played at the Stratford Festival in 1994, 1995 and in 2014. Reaney also enjoyed painting and drawing and his art works, from the 1940s to 1990s, were put on exhibit at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in

Kleinburg, Ontario Kleinburg is an unincorporated village in the city of Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, an art gallery with a focus on the Group of Seven, and the Kortright Centre for Conservation. In 2001, the vil ...

in 2008. Reaney died on June 11, 2008, in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

Writing

Reaney's complex symbolic and poetic regional drama defies categorizing. Reaney's plays are a combination of symbol, metaphor, chant, poetic incantation, choral speaking, improvisation, miming, and child play. Reaney depends on the concept that we, the audience, are all "children of an older growth" and his audience have responded to this expectation. The symbolic quest as the children search for truth and end in reconciliation with the adult world are the basis of Reaney's plays. Critics have called him a colonial, a rationalist and internationalist, a rabid nationalist, a symbolist, and a poet with the myth of coherence who is yet able to say something in an age of the random. Of his poetry, ''The

Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available ...

'' says: "Reaney's poetry, collected in ''Poems'' (1972), has earned him a reputation as an erudite poet at once deriving structures from metaphor, mythology, and a

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

literary tradition while deeply rooted in a regional sense of place." Reaney's fiction of the 1940s and 1950s (collected in the 1994 book ''The Box Social and Other Stories,'' was "influential in establishing the style of writing that has since become known as ‘Southern Ontario Gothic’. Margaret Atwood has remarked that ‘without "The Bully", my fiction would have followed other paths'.... Playing sophisticated games by switching voice, he achieves a kind of ‘magic realism’, often through the distorted perspective and sense of disproportion of his child narrators."

Awards

James Reaney won a number of awards in his lifetime: * elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1978 * invested as an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

in 1975) * Governor General's Award for Poetry or Drama in 1949 for ''The Red Heart'' * Governor General's Award for Poetry or Drama in

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

for ''A Suit of Nettles''. * Governor General's Award for Poetry or Drama in

for ''Twelve Letters to a Small Town'' and ''The Killdeer and Other Plays'' * Honorary doctorates from

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning Wo ...

(1975),

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

(1979),

Brock University Brock University is a public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The university bears t ...

(1991), and the

(1992) * Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award in 1975 for ''The St. Nicholas Hotel'' *

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...

National Award in Letters for ''The Donnellys'' trilogy.

Publications

Poetry

* ''The Red Heart''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1949. * ''A Suit of Nettles''. Toronto, Macmillan,

. Porcupine's Quill, 2010. * ''Twelve Letters to a Small Town''. Toronto: Ryerson,

. * ''The Dance of Death at London, Ontario''. London, ON: Alphabet,

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...

. * ''Poems''. Toronto: New Press,

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

. * ''Selected Shorter Poems'' Germaine Warkenton ed. Erin, ON: Porcepic,

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

. * ''Selected Longer Poems''. Germaine Warkenton ed. Erin, ON: Porcepic, 1976. * ''Imprecations: The Art of Swearing''. Windsor, ON: Black Moss,

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. * ''Performance: Poems''. Goderich, ON: Moonstone,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

. * ''Souwesto Home''. Stan Dragland, ed. Brick Books, 2005. 9781894078436 * ''The Essential James Reaney''. Brian Bartlett, ed. Porcupine's Quill, 2009).

Plays

* ''The Killdeer and Other Plays''. Toronto: Macmillan, 1962. * ''Names and Nicknames'' (1963) Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1978. * ''Geography Match'' (1967) Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1978. * ''Ignoramus'' (1967) Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1978. * '' Colours in the Dark'' ( Talonbooks, 1969) , * ''Masks of Childhood''. Toronto: New Press, 1972. * ''Listen to the Wind''. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1972. * ''Apple Butter and Other Plays for Children''. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1973. * ''Wacousta!'' Wingham, ON: Jubilee, 1974. Erin, ON: Porcépic, 1979. * ''Sticks and Stones: The Donnellys, Part I'' Erin, ON: Porcepic, 1975.Search Results: James Reaney
May 9, 2011. * ''Baldoon'', with C.H. Gervais. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 1976. * ''The St. Nicholas Hotel, Wm. Donnelly, Prop: The Donnellys, Part II''. Erin ON: Porcepic, 1976. , * ''Handcuffs: The Donnellys, Part III''. Erin, ON: Porcepic, 1977. * ''The Donnellys.'' Erin, ON: Porcepic, 1977. * ''The Plays of James Reaney''. ECW P, 1977. * ''The Dismissal''

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

. (Erin, ON: Press Porcépic/Beach Holme Publishers, 1978. * ''Gyroscope'' Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 1983. * ''King Whistle!'' (1980) — about the Stratford General Strike of 1933 * ''Plays of James Reaney''. ECW P, 1985. * ''Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass adapted for the stage.'' Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 1994. * ''Scripts: Librettos for Operas and Other Musical Works'' John Beckwith, ed. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2004. * ''Reaney Days in the West Room''. (drama — 7 plays) David Ferry, ed. (Playwrights Canada Press, 2009)

Fiction

* "The Box Social," ''Liberty'' (Toronto), July 19, 1947. * ''The Boy with an R in His Hand''. Toronto: Macmillan, 1965. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 1980. Juvenile. * ''Take the Big Picture''. Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 1986. Juvenile. * ''The Box Social & Other Stories'' Erin, ON: Porcupine's Quill, 1996.

Non-Fiction

* ''Halloween'' (Black Moss Press, 1976) * ''14 Barrels from Sea to Sea''. Erin, ON: Press Porcepic, 1977. ,

Edited

* ''Major Plays of the Canadian Theatre, 1934-1984'' (Irwin,1984) * ''Modern Canadian Plays'' (Talonbooks,1985) ''Except where noted, Bibliography from JamesReaney.com.''

Discography

*''Celebration: Famous Canadian Poets CD'' Canadian Poetry Association — 2001 (CD#4) (with F. R. Scott ) *''Souwesto Words: 25 poets in Southwestern Ontario'' Ergo Books 2002 (Poets on the CD:

Penn Kemp Patricia Penn Anne Kemp (born 1944), better known simply as Penn Kemp, is a Canadians, Canadian poet, novelist, playwright, and sound poet who lives in London, Ontario. Kemp has been publishing her writing since 1972 and was London's first poet lau ...

, John Tyndall,

Molly Peacock Molly Peacock (born Buffalo, New York 1947) is an American-Canadian poet, essayist, biographer and speaker, whose multi-genre literary life also includes memoir, short fiction, and a one-woman show. Career Peacock's latest book is Flower Diary ...

, Emily Chung, Paul Langille, Sheila Martindale, Roy McDonald, Sadiqa Khan, Jan Figurski, Jody Trevail, Beryl Baigent, John B. Lee, Cornelia Hoogland, James Reaney, Colleen Thibaudeau, Michael Wilson, Aimee O'Beirn, Jason Dickson, Marianne Micros, Skot Deeming, Victor Elias, David J. Paul, April Bulmer, Julie Berry, Don Gutteridge)

References

* Margaret Atwood, "Reaney Collected", ''Canadian Literature'' 57 (1973). * Stan Dragland, "James Reaney's 'Pulsating Dance in and Out of Forms'", ''The Human Elements: Critical Essays'', ed.

David Helwig David Helwig (April 5, 1938 – October 16, 2018) was a Canadian editor, essayist, memoirist, novelist, poet, short story writer and translator. Life and career Helwig was born in Toronto, Ontario, where he spent his early childhood years. When h ...

(1978). * Stan Dragland, ed. ''Approaches to the Work of James Reaney'' (1983). *

Louis Dudek Louis Dudek, (February 6, 1918 – March 23, 2001) was a Canadian poet, academic, and publisher known for his role in defining Modernism in poetry, and for his literary criticism. He was the author of over two dozen books. In ''A Digital Hist ...

, "Problem of Meaning''," Canadian Literature'' 59 (1974)''.'' * Thomas Gerry, ''The Emblems of James Reaney''
Porcupine's Quill
2013). * Manina Jones. "The Collage in Motion: Staging the Document in Reaney's ''Sticks and Stones''." ''That Art of Difference: 'Documentary-Collage and English-Canadian Writing''. (1993). * W.J. Keith, "James Reaney's 'Scrutumnus' and the Critics: An Individual Response", ''Canadian Poetry: Studies/Documents/Reviews'' (1980). * Alvin A. Lee, ''James Reaney'' (1968). * James Stewart Reaney, ''James Reaney'' (1977). * Richard Stingle, ''James Reaney and His Works'' (ECW Press, 1990). *

Craig Stewart Walker Craig Stewart Walker (born September 25, 1960) is a Canadian writer, theatre director, actor and educator. Walker graduated from Bayview Secondary School and afterwards, began his career in the theatre as an actor with the Stratford Festival, t ...

, ''"''James Reaney: Metamorphic Masques,"''The Buried Astrolabe: Canadian Dramatic Imagination and Western Tradition'' (2001). * Ross G. Woodman, ''James Reaney'' (1971). * ''Two Plays'' (Ergo Books, 2002)

References

External links

JamesReaney.com
*
A Suit of Nettles
' on Google Books. *
Selected Shorter Poems
' on Google Books. {{DEFAULTSORT:Reaney, James 1926 births 2008 deaths 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Canadian modernist poets Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Governor General's Award-winning poets Members of the Order of Canada University of Toronto alumni Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian male writers