Anne Marriott
Anne Marriott was a Canadian poet, writer, and librarian, born in 1913 in Victoria, British Columbia. She had a diverse career, working as a scriptwriter for the National Film Board of Canada and serving as a reporter and women’s editor for the Prince George Citizen. In addition to her writing, Marriott held roles in library services and was actively involved in community arts, including directing the North Vancouver Community Arts Council and hosting poetry workshops. She is perhaps best remembered for her poem "The Wind Our Enemy," which she wrote during a visit to the drought-stricken prairies of Saskatchewan in the 1930s, a work that reflects her connection to the contrasts in the Canadian landscape. Although characterized as a "prairie writer," much of her poetry focuses on the west coast of Canada. Throughout her life, Marriott received numerous accolades, including the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 1941. Dedicated to nurturing the next generation of writers, she encouraged children to express their truths through poetry. Marriott passed away in 1997, leaving behind a legacy of literary contributions and community engagement.
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Subject Terms
Anne Marriott
Poet
- Born: November 15, 1913
- Birthplace: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- Died: November 1, 1997
- Place of death:
Biography
Anne Marriott was born in 1913 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to civil engineer Edward Guy Marriott and Catherine Heley Marriott. She was educated in private schools and attended the University of British Columbia in 1942, returning there in 1956. She married Gerald Jerome McLellan in 1947 and the couple had three children. Marriott died in 1997.
Marriott worked for the National Film Board of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, as a script writer from 1945 through 1949, and from 1950 through 1953 she was a reporter and the women’s editor of the Prince George Citizen in Prince George, British Columbia. In 1953, she became an assistantlibrarian at the Prince George Public Library, and in 1958, she was an assistant librarian at the Squamish Public Library. At the same time, she was raising her three children. She also was the director of the North Vancouver Community Arts Council and a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in addition to providing poetry workshops. Furthermore, she, Dorothy Livesay, Floris McLaren, Doris Ferne and Alan Crawley founded the Modernist literary magazine Contemporary Verse in Victoria in 1941.
While in her twenties, Marriott wrote the poem for which she is best remembered, the very long and expressive The Wind Our Enemy, which she composed while convalescing from an illness during a visit to relatives in 1937 in the drought-affected prairie area of Saskatchewan during the height of the Depression. She was vividly struck by the contrast between the brown, dry, and dusty Canadian prairies and the lush, green, and moist west coast of Canada. Thus, Marriott is often characterized as a “prairie writer,” although most of her life she wrote primarily about the west coast of Canada, especially British Columbia.
Among the awards Marriott received were the 1941 Governor General’s Award for Poetry for Calling Adventurers, a 1943 drama award from the Women’s Canadian Club, a Koerner Foundation scholarship in 1956, and the 1958 Ohio Award for Educational Broadcasting. Marriot especially enjoyed helping and encouraging young children to write poetry and continually emphasized that the most important thing writers can do is to write what is true to them.