Alden Albert Nowlan (; January 25, 1933 – June 27, 1983) was a Canadian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

, and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

History

Alden Nowlan was born into rural poverty in Stanley, Nova Scotia, adjacent to Mosherville, and close to the small town of Windsor,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, along a stretch of dirt road that he would later refer to as Desolation Creek. His father, Freeman Lawrence Nowlan, worked sporadically as a manual labourer. His mother, Grace Reese, was only 14 years of age when Nowlan was born, and she soon left the family, leaving Alden and her younger daughter Harriet to the care of their paternal grandmother. The family discouraged education as a waste of time, and Nowlan left school after only four grades. At the age of 14, he went to work in the village sawmill. At the age of 16, he discovered the new library in Windsor. Often on weekends he would travel eighteen miles to the library to get books, which broadened his already keen reading. "I wrote (as I read) in secret." Nowlan remembered. "My father would as soon have seen me wear lipstick."

Career and later life

At 19, Nowlan's artfully embroidered résumé landed him a job with ''Observer'', a newspaper in Hartland, New Brunswick. While working at the ''Observer'', Nowlan began writing books of poetry, the first of which was published by

Fredericton Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy), Saint John River, ...

's Fiddlehead Poetry Books. Nowlan eventually settled permanently in

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

. In 1963, he married Claudine Orser, a typesetter on his former paper, and moved to Saint John with her and her son, John, whom he adopted. He became the night editor for the Saint John

Telegraph Journal The ''Telegraph-Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, owned by Postmedia Network. It serves as both a provincial daily and as a local newspaper for Saint John. The ''Telegraph-Journal'' is the only New Br ...

and continued to write poetry. In 1966, Nowlan was diagnosed with

throat cancer Head and neck cancer is a general term encompassing multiple cancers that can develop in the head and neck region. These include cancers of the mouth, tongue, gums and lips ( oral cancer), voice box ( laryngeal), throat ( nasopharyngeal, orophar ...

. After three surgeries and a subsequent radiation treatment, his health began to improve. He wrote poems about his brush with death. In 1967, he was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

, and his collection ''Bread, Wine and Salt'' was awarded the Governor General's Award for Poetry. Soon afterward, the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton offered him the position of Writer-in-Residence. He remained in the position until his death on June 27, 1983, after collapsing at his home with severe

emphysema Emphysema is any air-filled enlargement in the body's tissues. Most commonly emphysema refers to the permanent enlargement of air spaces (alveoli) in the lungs, and is also known as pulmonary emphysema. Emphysema is a lower respiratory tract di ...

Awards and recognition

Nowlan's most notable literary achievements include the

Governor General's Award The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the governor general of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields. The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...

for ''Bread, Wine and Salt'' (1967) and a

. He was writer-in-residence at the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English language, English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universiti ...

in Fredericton from 1968 until his death in 1983. In New Brunswick, the Alden Nowlan Award for Excellence in English-language Literary Arts is named in his honour. Nowlan is one of Canada's most popular 20th-century poets, and his appearance in the anthology ''Staying Alive'' (2002) has helped to spread his popularity beyond Canada. In the 1970s, Nowlan met and became close friends with theatre director Walter Learning. The two collaborated on a number of plays, including '' A Gift to Last'', ''Frankenstein'', ''The Dollar Woman'', and ''The Incredible Murder of Cardinal Tosca.'' Nowlan's Fredericton home is now the residence of the Graduate Student Association at the University of New Brunswick. Dubbed "Windsor Castle" by Nowlan after its location on Windsor Street, the simple building is now officially called the Alden Nowlan House. Nowlan is buried in the Poets' Corner of the Forest Hill cemetery in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Bibliography

Poetry

*''A Darkness in the Earth''. Eureka, California: Hearse, 1958. *''The Rose and the Puritan''. Fredericton, N.B.: University of New Brunswick, 1958. *''Wind in a Rocky Country''. Toronto: Emblem, 1960. *''Under the Ice''. Toronto: Ryerson, 1961. *''Five New Brunswick Poet''s. Fredericton, N.B.: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1962. (with Elizabeth Brewster, Fred Cogswell, Robert Gibbs and Kay Smith) *''The Things Which Are''. Toronto: Contact, 1962. *''Bread, Wine and Salt''. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1967. *''A Black Plastic Button and a Yellow Yoyo'', handmade limited edition folio of 20 copies, printed and illustrated by Charles Pachter, Toronto 1968 *''The Mysterious Naked Man''. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1969. *''Playing the Jesus Game: Selected Poems''. Trumansburg, N.Y.: New/Books, 1970. *''Between Tears and Laughter''. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1971. *''I'm a Stranger Here Myself''. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1974. *''Shaped by This Land''. Fredericton: Brunswick, 1974. *''Smoked Glass''. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1977. *''I Might Not Tell Everybody This''. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1982. *''Early Poems''. Fredericton, N.B.: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1983. *''An Exchange of Gifts: Poems New and Selected''. Toronto: Irwin, 1985. *''What Happened When He Went to the Store for Bread''. Minneapolis: Nineties Press, 1993. *''The Best of Alden Nowlan''. Hantsport, N.S.: Lancelot, 1993. *''Alden Nowlan: Selected Poems''. Toronto: House of Anansi, 1996. *''Between Tears and Laughter'' Tarset, Northumberland, U.K.: Bloodaxe, 2004. *''Collected Poems'' Fredericton, N. B.: Goose Lane, 2017.

Fiction

*''Miracle at Indian River''. Clarke, Irwin, Toronto 1968 *''Various Persons Named Kevin O'Brien''. Clarke, Irwin, Toronto 1973 * ''The year of the revolution'', CBC radio anthology, Robert Weaver: ''Small wonders. New stories by 12 distinguished Canadian authors''. CBC, Toronto 1982, pp 85 – 96 *''Will Ye Let the Mummers In''. Irwin, Toronto 1984 *''The Wanton Troopers''. Goose Lane, Fredericton 1988

Drama

*''Frankenstein: The Man Who Became God ''- Clarke, Irwin, Toronto 1973 (with Walter Learning) *''The Dollar Woman'' – Playwrights Co-op, Toronto 1981 (with Walter Learning) *''The Incredible Murder of Cardinal Tosca'' – Dramatic Publishing, 1978 (with Walter Learning) *''A Gift to Last'' (with Walter Learning) from the teleplay by

Gordon Pinsent Gordon Edward Pinsent (July 12, 1930 – February 25, 2023) was a Canadian actor, writer, director, and singer. He was known for his roles in numerous productions, including ''Away from Her'', ''The Rowdyman'', ''John and the Missus'', ''A Gift ...

*''Gardens of the Wind'' – (CBC radio broadcast) Saskatoon: Thistledown, 1982.

Non-fiction

*''Campobello: The Outer Island''. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1975. *''Double Exposure''. Fredericton, N.B.: Brunswick Press, 1978. *''Nine Micmac Legends''. Hantsport, N.S.: Lancelot, 1983. *''White Madness''. Ottawa: Oberon, 1996. *''Road Dancers''. Ottawa: Oberon, 1999.

Anthologies

*''15 Canadian Poets X3'', ed. Gary Geddes (Oxford University Press, 2001) *''Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada'', ed. Anne Compton, Laurence Hutchman, Ross Leckie and Robin McGrath (Goose Lane Editions, 2002)

Recordings

*''Alden Nowlan's Maritimes''. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1972.

References

* New, W. H., ed. ''The Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. p. 835-837. * Williamson, Margie. ''Four Maritime Poets: a survey of the works of Alden Nowlan, Fred Cogswell, Raymond Fraser and Al Pittman, as they reflect the spirit and culture of the Maritime people''. Thesis (M.A.), Dalhousie University, 1973 icroform

External links

*
The Alden Nowlan Interviews

"Alden Nowlan"

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

entry by Douglas Fetherling
Alden Nowlan and Social Class, by Thomas R. Smith
afterword to "My Family Was Poor"
Nowlan
at

Athabasca University Athabasca University (AU) is a Canadian public university that primarily operates through online distance education. Founded in 1970, it is one of four comprehensive academic and research universities in Alberta, and was the first Canadian ...

, with 5 hyperlinks > essays
Documentary on Nowlan

''The fall of a city''
by Alden Nowlan {{DEFAULTSORT:Nowlan, Alden 1933 births 1983 deaths 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Governor General's Award–winning poets Writers from Fredericton People from Hants County, Nova Scotia Academic staff of the University of New Brunswick Canadian male novelists 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets 20th-century Canadian novelists Canadian male short story writers Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian short story writers 20th-century Canadian male writers Journalists from Saint John, New Brunswick Poets from Nova Scotia Poets from New Brunswick Novelists from New Brunswick Novelists from Nova Scotia