Miriam Waddington

Miriam Waddington (née Dworkin, 23 December 1917 – 3 March 2004) was a Canadian poet, short story writer and translator. She also wrote as E. B. Merrit.^[1]

Biography

Miriam Waddington was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she studied English at the University of Toronto (B.A. 1939) and social work at the University of Pennsylvania (M.A.). She worked for many years as a social worker in Montreal. She later relocated to the then Toronto suburb of North York, where she worked for North York Family Services. In 1964, she joined the English department at York University. She retired in 1983.

Miriam Waddington was part of a Montreal circle that included F. R. Scott, Irving Layton and Louis Dudek.

She is a well known name in Canadian literary circles.

She died in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. After her death, much of her own works and personal library were donated by her sons to the archives of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. The donation was a significant and appreciated endowment. Her archival fonds is held at Library and Archives Canada.

Honours

Miriam Waddington was awarded Borestone Mountain Awards for best poetry in 1963, 1966, and 1974.^[2]

Miriam Waddington received the J.J. Segal Award in 1972. She was the Canada Council Exchange Poet to Wales in 1980, and served as writer-in-residence at the Windsor Public Library and at the University of Ottawa.

She received honorary doctorates from Lakehead University in 1975 and York University in 1985.^[2]

Her poem "Jacques Cartier in Toronto" is featured on the back of the Canadian $100 bill released in 2004.

Bibliography

Poetry

• Green World. Montreal: First Statement, 1945.
• The Second Silence. Toronto: Ryerson, 1955.
• The Season's Lovers. Toronto: Ryerson, 1958.
• Four Poems. n.p.: n.p., 196-?
• The Glass Trumpet. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1966.
• Flying with Milton. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Unicorn Press, 1969.
• Say Yes. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1969.
• Dream Telescope. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1972.
• Driving Home: Poems New and Selected. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1972.
• The Price of Gold. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1976.
• Mister Never. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1978.
• The Visitants. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1981.
• Collected Poems. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1986.
• The Last Landscape. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1992.
• Canada: Romancing the Land - 1996
• Advice to the Young,

An example of one of Waddington's poems entitled "Flying With Milton," is as follows, with an excerpt from Keats.

....he flew
With daring Milton through the fields of air
Keats

Flying with Milton through
his fields of air on a dark
November day in Toronto I
dreamed of terraced hillsides
new forest plantings in Jamaica
irrigation schemes in Israel
and free mountains in Africa
I dreamed of storm windows
piled up on racks in suburban
garages of fresh air and peace
and gardens for everyone I
dreamed of violence suspended
from a sonnet string tied to
the apron of April and I hung
on the dangling world a single
bead in a string of beads one
frail point to sink into the centre
where I could turn the spokes
of Milton's eternal wheel to
speaking radiation

Fiction

• Summer at Lonely Beach and Other Stories. Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 1982.

Non-fiction

• A.M. Klein. Toronto: Copp Clark Publishing, 1970.
• Folklore in the Poetry of A.M. Klein. St. John's, NF: Memorial University, 1981.
• Apartment Seven: Essays New and Selected. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Edited

• Waddington, Miriam, ed. The Collected Poems of A.M. Klein. Toronto: Mc-Graw-Hill Ryerson, 1974.
• Waddington, Miriam, ed. John Sutherland: Essays, Controversies and Poems. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Brock University.^[3]

References

1. ↑ Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 114. 
2. 1 2 "Miriam Waddington", League of Canadian Poets, Poets.ca, Web, 13 April 2011
3. ↑ "Miriam Waddington," Canadian Women Poets, BrockU.ca, Web, 13 April 2011.

External links

• 100 Canadian Poets
• The Bank of Canada - $100 Note, Background Information
• Miriam Waddington's life achievements, awards, selected publications and books in print