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George Whalley

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George Whalley
BornArthur George Cuthbert Whalley
July 25, 1915 (1915-07-25)
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
DiedMay 27, 1983 (1983-05-28)
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
OccupationProfessor, Queen's University
NationalityCanadian
GenreLiterary Criticism; Poetry; Biography
Notable worksPoetic Process, No Man An Island, The Legend of John Hornby
Website
www.georgewhalley.ca

George Whalley (25 July 1915 – 27 May 1983) was a scholar, poet, naval officer and secret intelligence agent during World War II, CBC broadcaster, musician, biographer, and translator.[1] He taught English at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario (1950–80) and was twice the head of the department. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1959. He married Elizabeth Watts on July 25, 1944. They had three children: Katharine, Christopher, and Emily. His brother, Peter Whalley, was a famous artist and cartoonist.

Education

Whalley attended St. Alban's School in Brockville, Ontario from 1922-30. He completed his first B.A. at Bishop's University, in Lennoxville, Quebec, graduating in 1935. As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed his second B.A. at Oriel College, Oxford, in 1939. He received an M.A. from Oriel College, Oxford, in 1945. He completed his second M.A. degree at Bishop's University in 1948. His thesis was entitled "A Critique of Criticism." He received his Ph.D. from King's College, University of London, in 1950.

Military service 1940-56

Whalley served in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve (1940–56) and was on active duty in the Royal Navy (1940–45). He served on warships (including HMS Tartar and HMS Ceres), participated in the pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck, saved a life at sea (for which he was awarded a Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal), worked as a naval intelligence officer, designed a marker buoy used during the Sicily landing in 1943, and secretly tested surfboats used to land Allied agents in Europe covertly in preparation for the invasion of Normandy in 1944. After the war, Whalley served as the Commander to HMCS Cataraqui in Kingston (1952–56). He retired with the rank of Commander in 1956.

Poetry

Whalley published two collections of poems written during World War Two. The first, Poems 1939-1944 was issued as part of the Ryerson Poetry Chapbook series in 1946. It contains 17 poems. The second book, No Man An Island, appeared in 1948. It contains 41 poems, a few of which are reprinted from the chapbook. The Collected Poems of George Whalley, edited by George Johnston, is currently the most complete collection available, containing 76 poems, and all of the poems that appeared in the two earlier books. Whalley's "rare body of wartime poetry" [2] has been praised as "war poems [that] display a mature range and scope that is unmatched by any other of the second world war poets".[3]

Coleridge Scholarship

Whalley was a leading expert on the writings of the poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His PhD thesis was entitled S.T. Coleridge: Library Cormorant. He published over twenty scholarly essays and articles on Coleridge's poetry, letters, criticism, and marginalia and these appeared in numerous journals including Queen's Quarterly, University of Toronto Quarterly, and Review of English Studies. For thirty years, he collected and organized Coleridge's marginalia, which was published in six volumes as part of The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Whalley edited the first two volumes and was named as a co-editor, with H.J. Jackson, for the other four.

John Hornby and Edgar Christian Writings

Whalley's interest in the story of John Hornby began when he read Unflinching, the edition of Edgar Christian's diary that was published in 1937, before World War II. In the 1950s, Whalley began a careful study by studying the existing documents, contacting the Christian family, and travelling to the Thelon River site of the Hornby camp. He wrote "Death in the Barren Ground", a 60-minute radio feature for CBC radio (first broadcast 3 March 1954), based on Christian's diary and the Hornby legend. A television version was first broadcast on CBC Explorations on 28 October 1959. In The Legend of John Hornby, published in 1962, and Death in the Barren Ground: The Diary of Edgar Christian, published in 1980, Whalley wrote remarkable accounts of the relationship that tied Hornby and Christian together and led to their deaths.

Books

A full bibliography of Whalley's publications, including articles, reviews, and broadcasts, is available. Listed here are books only.

  • Poems 1939-44. Toronto: Ryerson, 1946. Print. Ryerson Poetry Chap-Book No 116.
  • No Man an Island. Toronto: Clarke & Irwin, 1948. Print.
  • Poetic Process. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953. Print.
  • Editor. Selected Poems of George Herbert Clarke. With a foreword by George Whalley and with a general introduction by W.O. Raymond. Toronto: Ryerson, 1954. Print.
  • Coleridge and Sara Hutchinson and the Asra Poems. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1955; Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1955. Print.
  • Editor. Writing in Canada. Proceedings of the Canadian Writers' Conference, Queen's University, 28–31 July 1955. With a preface by George Whalley and with an introduction by F.R. Scott. Toronto: Macmillan, 1956. Print.
  • The Legend of John Hornby. London: John Murray, 1962; Toronto: Macmillan, 1962. Print.
  • Editor. A Place of Liberty, Essays on the Government of Canadian Universities. With an essay “Further Proposals” (154-75), by George Whalley. Toronto: Clarke & Irwin, 1964. Print.
  • Editor. Death in the Barren Ground: The Diary of Edgar Christian. With an Introduction by George Whalley. Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1980. Print.
  • Editor. Christopher Pepys 1914-1974: A Remembrance by his Friends. With contributions by George Whalley. Oxford: privately printed, 1980. Print.
  • Editor. Marginalia I. The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, No. 12.1. Princeton: Princeton UP; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980. Print.
  • Editor. Marginalia 2. The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, No. 12.2. Princeton: Princeton UP; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985. Print.
  • Studies in Literature and the Humanities: Innocence of Intent. Editors. Brian Crick and John Ferns. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 1985. Print.
  • The Collected Poems of George Whalley. Editor. George Johnston. Kingston: Quarry Press, 1986. Print.
  • H.J. Jackson and George Whalley. Editors. Marginalia 3. The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, No. 12.3. Princeton: Princeton UP; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1992.
  • H.J. Jackson and George Whalley. Editors. Marginalia 4. The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Marginalia I and II. No. 12.4. Princeton: Princeton UP; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1998. Print.
  • H.J. Jackson and George Whalley. Editors. Marginalia 5. The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, No. 12.5. Princeton: Princeton UP; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1999. Print.
  • H.J. Jackson and George Whalley. Editors. Marginalia 6. The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, No. 12.6. Princeton: Princeton UP; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2001. Print.
  • Translator. Aristotle's Poetics. With commentary by George Whalley. Ed. John Baxter and Patrick Atherton. Montreal: McGill-Queen's UP, 1997. Print.

References

  1. ^ Moore, Michael. Editor. George Whalley: Remembrances. Kingston: Quarry Press, 1989. Print.
  2. ^ Trehearne, Brian, ed. Canadian Poetry 1920-1960. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2010. p. 357. Print.
  3. ^ Lewis, David. Rev. of The Collected Poems of George Whalley, Ed. George Johnston. Queen’s Quarterly 94 (1987): 1045-7. p. 1046. Print.
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