Alan Sullivan

picture of Alan Sullivan

Edward Alan Sullivan (November 29, 1868 — August 6, 1947) was a Canadian poet and author of short stories. He is noted for his 1935 historical adventure novel The Great Divide, which depicts the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

History

Born in St. George's Rectory, Montreal, he was the oldest son of Edward Sullivan and Frances Mary Renaud. In 1869, his father became rector of Trinity Church, Chicago. The family lived to the city in 1871, and thus witnessed the Great Chicago Fire. When he was 15, he began attending Loretto in Musselburgh, Scotland, a famous school for boys.

On his return to Canada, he attended the School of Practical Science, Toronto. After this he did railway exploration work in the West, and later worked in mining. He was assistant engineer in the Clergue enterprises at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario for a year and a half, before the organization of the Consolidated Lake Superior Company. Subsequently he spent several years as a mining engineer in the Lake of the Woods district during the period of its gold exploitation.

Writing

He gained recognition in the United States through his poems, short stories and comprehensive articles on various themes. These frequently appeared in Harper's Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, and other leading American periodicals. In 1941 he won the Governor General's Award for English language fiction for the novel Three Came to Ville Marie and The Magic Makers in 1930. Wonder Stories reviewed his lost race novel In The Beginning favorably, saying its depiction of an encounter between modern men and Pleistocene-era tribesmen was a "most tremendous drama of inter-racial conflict".

Selected bibliography

• The Passing of Oul-i-but (1913)
• Blantyre — Alien (1914)
• The Inner Door (1917)
• Aviation in Canada, 1917-18 (1919)
• The Rapids (1920)
• The Cricible (1925)
• Human Clay (1926; as Sinclair Murray)
• In the Beginning (1926; as Sinclair Murray)
• The Splendid Silence (1927)
• Whispering Lodge (1927)
• Under The Northern Lights (1928)
• A Little Way Ahead (1930; as Sinclair Murray)
• The Magic Makers (1930)
• The Golden Foundling (1931)
• The Great Divide (1935)
• With Love from Rachel (1938)
• Three Came to Ville Marie (1941)
• Cariboo Road (1946)

References

1. Biography by John Garvin, dated 1916
2. Full e-text of Under the Northern Lights, hosted by Project Gutenberg of Australia
3. Partial e-text of The Passing of Oul-i-but, hosted by Mount Royal College

• Gordon D. McLeod. Essentially Canadian: The Life and Fiction of Alan Sullivan. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1982.

External links

• Works by Alan Sullivan at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Alan Sullivan at the Internet Archive