Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1956-1967 (Creation)
Level of description
Manuscript Collection
Extent and medium
5 boxes (1 metre)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Al Purdy was born in Wooler, Ontario in 1918. A Canadian free verse poet and writer, Purdy published his first collection of poetry, The Enchanted Echo, in 1944. After riding the rails to Vancouver during the Depression, serving with the RCAF during WWII and working a wide variety of jobs, he settled in Ameliasburgh, Ontario in 1957. There he built an A-Frame house where he lived with his wife Eurithe Purdy, which quickly became a meeting place for Canadian literary figures. He traveled widely and frequently based his poetry on his travels. He was awarded an Officer of the Order of Canada, and won the Governor General's award for poetry in 1965 for the Cariboo Horses, then again in 1986 for Collected Poems. The most successful of Purdy’s volumes are Poems For All the Annettes (1962), Sex & Death (1973), the Stone Bird (1981), and Pilings Blood (1984). His last book was published posthumously, Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy in 2000. Al Purdy died in North Saanich, BC on April 21, 2000.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Gift of Al Purdy, 1967
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Includes 28 tapes of Purdy reading his poetry (Cariboo horses; Pressed on sand). Typescripts and drafts of poems. Typescripts and mimeographs of articles and plays for television and radio).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/stack-retrieval-request
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English