Alfred Goldsworthy Bailey
Alfred Goldsworthy Bailey was a prominent Canadian poet, scholar, and cultural historian whose contributions significantly shaped the landscape of Canadian literature and academia. Born on March 18, 1905, in Quebec City, Bailey developed an early passion for poetry, influenced by his father's encouragement and his education at the University of New Brunswick. He transitioned from romantic poetry, which celebrated the Canadian maritime landscape, to a more modernist style characterized by concise and cerebral imagery, especially after his studies at the London School of Economics.
Bailey's academic journey led him to create the discipline of ethnohistory with his influential work, "The Conflict of European and Eastern Algonkian Cultures, 1504-1700," published in 1937. Over his lengthy career, he returned to the University of New Brunswick, where he became a key figure in its evolution into a major academic institution. He actively promoted Canadian literature, founding the Bliss Carman Society and "The Fiddlehead," a literary journal that continues to support Canadian writers.
Bailey's academic pursuits crossed various fields, reflecting his belief in the interconnectedness of culture and individual development. He continued to write poetry throughout his life, with later works embracing a freer emotional style while revisiting themes of nature. Upon his passing on April 21, 1997, Bailey was celebrated not only as a poet but also as an innovative scholar and dedicated teacher whose work captured the dynamic interplay between romanticism and modernism in the 20th century.
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Alfred Goldsworthy Bailey
Author
- Born: March 18, 1905
- Birthplace: Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
- Died: April 21, 1997
- Place of death: Fredericton, New Brunswick
Biography
Alfred Goldsworthy Bailey supported Canadian poetry vigorously. That support, as well as his academic interest in the ethnic evolution of the Canadian culture, defined a public career of service that spanned more than half a century. He was born in Quebec City on March 18, 1905. His father, a native of the province of New Brunswick and a former student of the popular Canadian poet Bliss Carman, encouraged Bailey to write poetry—which he did, beginning in high school. Pursuing his education at the University of New Brunswick, he served as the poetry editor for the university’s literary publication. Graduating in 1927, Bailey earned his M.A. at the University of Toronto. He pursued further studies at the London School of Economics, where he first read T. S. Eliot. The impact was significant. Bailey redefined his poetic line, moving away from the rhythms and music of his early romantic poetry, verses that often reflected his love of the Canadian maritime landscape and his recollections of his own upbringing, to experiment with more cerebral, image-centered poetry in lines that were less musical, more subtly rhythmical, rigorously cut and concise, particularly noticeable in Tao (1930).
That same year, Bailey returned to a Canada mired in the depression. He worked as a journalist for the Toronto Mail and Empire before returning to academics, completing his dissertation in history and anthropology. That work produced Bailey’s 1937 landmark study, The Conflict of European and Eastern Algonkian Cultures, 1504-1700: A Study of Canadian Civilization, a volume of such integrity and influence that it created an entirely new discipline—ethnohistory, the study of the impact of colliding cultures—and would remain a definitive work in the field for more than fifty years. By 1937, Bailey had returned to the University of New Brunswick, where he would shape its growth into a major academic institution until his death nearly sixty years later. He tirelessly promoted an appreciation of the province’s position within the development of a Canadian national literature. That unflagging promotion of regional—as well as Canadian—literature led Bailey to found not only the Bliss Carman Society but also The Fiddlehead, a journal that encouraged Canadian writers and that has become the longest continuously published literary journal in Canada.
As an academic, Bailey crossed the curriculum, developing courses in economics, sociology, psychology, politics, and anthropology, a breadth of interest that reflected Bailey’s position that an individual—as well as a culture—develops only within a complex field of influences. He would continue writing poetry, publishing his last collection of new verse while in his seventies. In keeping with Bailey’s belief in inevitable evolution, this later poetry is freer, less rigorous, more emotional, with themes that return to his love of the Canadian landscape. When he died on April 21, 1997, he was hailed as an innovative scholar, a generous teacher, and a cultural historian as well as a poet whose body of work reflected the defining dynamic of twentieth century poetry, specifically the interaction between romanticism and modernism.