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Canadian author Robertson Davies is born on this day in the town of Thamesville in Ontario, Canada.
Davies was the son of a publisher and politician who owned the Canadian newspaper the Peterborough Examiner. He attended college in Ontario and later in Oxford, England. He stayed in England after finishing his degree and worked for two years acting, directing, and teaching at London’s Old Vic theater. He tried his own hand at writing drama in the 1940s and 1950s, without enormous success.
When he returned to Canada, he became literary editor of a Toronto magazine, then edited for the Peterborough Examiner from 1962 to 1963. He began teaching English for the University of Toronto in 1960 and continued for more than 20 years. Meanwhile, he wrote novels, turning out more than 30 books of fiction, plus essays, articles, and nonfiction books. He was best known for his three trilogies, most notably the Deptford trilogy, including Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972), and World of Wonders (1975). The trilogy followed the intertwined lives of three men from the small Canadian town of Deptford. His other well-know works included the Salterton trilogy in the 1950s, set in the provincial Canadian town of Salterton and dealing with fictional small-town events like a chaotic production of The Tempest, a small-town family feud, and a young woman training to be an opera singer. Later works included What’s Bread in the Bone (1985), as well as many other novels and nonfiction books. Davies became the first Canadian admitted to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He died in 1995 at the age of 82.
Davies was the son of a publisher and politician who owned the Canadian newspaper the Peterborough Examiner. He attended college in Ontario and later in Oxford, England. He stayed in England after finishing his degree and worked for two years acting, directing, and teaching at London’s Old Vic theater. He tried his own hand at writing drama in the 1940s and 1950s, without enormous success.
When he returned to Canada, he became literary editor of a Toronto magazine, then edited for the Peterborough Examiner from 1962 to 1963. He began teaching English for the University of Toronto in 1960 and continued for more than 20 years. Meanwhile, he wrote novels, turning out more than 30 books of fiction, plus essays, articles, and nonfiction books. He was best known for his three trilogies, most notably the Deptford trilogy, including Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972), and World of Wonders (1975). The trilogy followed the intertwined lives of three men from the small Canadian town of Deptford. His other well-know works included the Salterton trilogy in the 1950s, set in the provincial Canadian town of Salterton and dealing with fictional small-town events like a chaotic production of The Tempest, a small-town family feud, and a young woman training to be an opera singer. Later works included What’s Bread in the Bone (1985), as well as many other novels and nonfiction books. Davies became the first Canadian admitted to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He died in 1995 at the age of 82.
Robertson Davies is born - Aug 28, 1913 - HISTORY.com
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The Salterton Trilogy ~Tempest-Tost ~Leaven of Malice ~A Mixture of Frailties 1951 - 58 The Deptford Trilogy ~Fifth Business ~The Manticore ~World of Wonders...
Thank you my friend TSgt Joe C. for making us aware that August 28 is the anniversary of the birth of Canadian author Robertson Davies who worked for two years acting, directing, and teaching at London’s Old Vic theater.
Background from canadian-writers.athabascau.ca/english/writers/rdavies.php
William Robertson Davies was born in 1913 in Thamesville, Ontario to a Welsh father and a strict Presbyterian mother. His father, sent to Canada when his family's tailoring business failed, became an influential and important newspaper owner and senator. Robertson inherited a love for reading from his parents. He boarded at Upper Canada College in Toronto, then studied at Queen's University in Kingston before attending Balliol College in Oxford, U.K. His initial passion was for the theatre and he pursued life as an actor in London. In 1940 Davies married Brenda Matthews whom he met at Oxford. In the same year the couple returned to Canada where Davies took the position of literary editor of Saturday Night.Robertson Davies worked in his early career to increase the quality and profile of Canadian drama. He started the Dominion Drama Festival and was an early member of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival board. In 1948, he produced his first commercially successful play, Fortune, My Foe. The play involves the questions surrounding Canadian culture and arts, from the point of view of a newly arrived immigrant, a young Canadian and an aging Englishman teacher. He wrote several plays during his career, but after a theatrical disaster in New York in 1960 with Love and Libel, or The Ogre of the Provincial World, Davies chose to instead focus on his novels.Davies' best-known work is the Deptford Trilogy of Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972) and World of Wonders (1975). Setting his novels in semi-rural Ontario, Davies uses biting satire in order to critique what he saw as a narrow-minded and emotionally repressed community. Starting from childhood, the trilogy follows the divergent lives of three boys: Percy Boyd Staunton, Paul Dempster and Dunstan Ramsay. The three boys are connected by one event in their childhood (Percy throws a snowball, meant for Dunstan, but instead causes the premature birth of Paul), and the three novels move between the three characters perspectives and different points in their lives. Robertson Davies received the Stephen Leacock Medal for humour in 1955, the Lorne Pierce Medal in 1961, the Governor-General's Award in 1972, as well as 23 honorary degrees. He was the first holder of the Massey Chair position at the University of Toronto in 1961. He co-founded the U of T’s graduate center for the Study of Drama in 1966. He died in Orangeville, Ontario in 1995. CBC covered his funeral live, and featured elegies by Margaret Atwood and Timothy Findlay, among many others. His legacy to Canadian literature and culture can be seen the number of novels and works of fiction and non-fiction alike, as well as the number of scholars and intellectuals who interacted with while he was at the University of Toronto. (Lee Skallerup)"
Robertson Davies 1973
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuhEWh3M_n8
FYI LTC Jeff ShearerSGT Philip Roncari Sgt Arthur Caesar ]Lt Col Jim CoeCWO3 Dennis M.SGT (Join to see)PO3 Bob McCordSGT Jim Arnold Sgt Albert Castro PO3 Phyllis Maynard Maj Robert Thornton 1SG Carl McAndrews SPC Douglas Bolton Cynthia Croft PO1 H Gene Lawrence SGT Brent Scott CW5 John M. CMSgt (Join to see) PO2 Kevin Parker
Background from canadian-writers.athabascau.ca/english/writers/rdavies.php
William Robertson Davies was born in 1913 in Thamesville, Ontario to a Welsh father and a strict Presbyterian mother. His father, sent to Canada when his family's tailoring business failed, became an influential and important newspaper owner and senator. Robertson inherited a love for reading from his parents. He boarded at Upper Canada College in Toronto, then studied at Queen's University in Kingston before attending Balliol College in Oxford, U.K. His initial passion was for the theatre and he pursued life as an actor in London. In 1940 Davies married Brenda Matthews whom he met at Oxford. In the same year the couple returned to Canada where Davies took the position of literary editor of Saturday Night.Robertson Davies worked in his early career to increase the quality and profile of Canadian drama. He started the Dominion Drama Festival and was an early member of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival board. In 1948, he produced his first commercially successful play, Fortune, My Foe. The play involves the questions surrounding Canadian culture and arts, from the point of view of a newly arrived immigrant, a young Canadian and an aging Englishman teacher. He wrote several plays during his career, but after a theatrical disaster in New York in 1960 with Love and Libel, or The Ogre of the Provincial World, Davies chose to instead focus on his novels.Davies' best-known work is the Deptford Trilogy of Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972) and World of Wonders (1975). Setting his novels in semi-rural Ontario, Davies uses biting satire in order to critique what he saw as a narrow-minded and emotionally repressed community. Starting from childhood, the trilogy follows the divergent lives of three boys: Percy Boyd Staunton, Paul Dempster and Dunstan Ramsay. The three boys are connected by one event in their childhood (Percy throws a snowball, meant for Dunstan, but instead causes the premature birth of Paul), and the three novels move between the three characters perspectives and different points in their lives. Robertson Davies received the Stephen Leacock Medal for humour in 1955, the Lorne Pierce Medal in 1961, the Governor-General's Award in 1972, as well as 23 honorary degrees. He was the first holder of the Massey Chair position at the University of Toronto in 1961. He co-founded the U of T’s graduate center for the Study of Drama in 1966. He died in Orangeville, Ontario in 1995. CBC covered his funeral live, and featured elegies by Margaret Atwood and Timothy Findlay, among many others. His legacy to Canadian literature and culture can be seen the number of novels and works of fiction and non-fiction alike, as well as the number of scholars and intellectuals who interacted with while he was at the University of Toronto. (Lee Skallerup)"
Robertson Davies 1973
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuhEWh3M_n8
FYI LTC Jeff ShearerSGT Philip Roncari Sgt Arthur Caesar ]Lt Col Jim CoeCWO3 Dennis M.SGT (Join to see)PO3 Bob McCordSGT Jim Arnold Sgt Albert Castro PO3 Phyllis Maynard Maj Robert Thornton 1SG Carl McAndrews SPC Douglas Bolton Cynthia Croft PO1 H Gene Lawrence SGT Brent Scott CW5 John M. CMSgt (Join to see) PO2 Kevin Parker
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SFC Shirley Whitfield 1SG Carl McAndrews MSG Mark Million COL Lee Flemming LTC (Join to see) PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SCPO Morris Ramsey SFC William Farrell Alan K. LTC Greg Henning MSgt Stephen Council Sgt Trevor Barrett Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MSG Andrew White SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth Cpl Scott McCarroll LTC John Shaw LTC John Griscom SFC (Join to see)
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