Cyrus Macmillan
Cyrus Macmillan was a notable Canadian educator, writer, and public servant, born on September 12, 1882, in Wood Island, Prince Edward Island. He pursued higher education at McGill University, earning both bachelor's and master's degrees before completing a doctorate at Harvard, focusing on Canadian folk songs. After returning to McGill as a lecturer in 1909, Macmillan took a hiatus from teaching during World War I to serve with the Seventh Canadian Siege Battery in France. Upon his return, he became the chair of the English department and later served as the dean of faculty from 1940 to 1947.
Macmillan contributed significantly to Canadian literature, particularly for young audiences, through his collections of folk tales, including "Canadian Wonder Tales" and "Canadian Fairy Tales," both of which reflect the oral traditions of the Canadian wilderness. He also documented the history of McGill University in a commemorative volume published in 1921. In addition to his literary achievements, he was active in politics as a member of the Canadian House of Commons during World War II. Macmillan passed away on June 29, 1953, but his legacy continued with posthumous publications. His efforts in preserving oral traditions have helped keep Canada's rich storytelling heritage alive.
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Cyrus Macmillan
Fiction and Nonfiction Writer
- Born: September 12, 1882
- Birthplace: Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island, Canada
- Died: June 29, 1953
- Place of death: Fortune Bridge, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Biography
Cyrus Macmillan was born on September 12, 1882, in Wood Island, Prince Edward Island, Canada. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1900, and a master’s degree in 1903, both from McGill University in Montreal. He later received another master’s degree and a doctorate from Harvard University. Macmillan’s doctoral thesis, completed in 1909, was on the folk songs of Canada. He returned to McGill in 1909 as a lecturer in the English department faculty.
Macmillan left teaching during World War I to serve in France with the Seventh Canadian Siege Battery, which he helped to organize. He returned to McGill after the war, married, and eventually became chair of the English department in 1923. He served as the dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at McGill from 1940 to 1947. During World War II, he was a member of the Canadian House of Commons and the parliamentary assistant to the minister of national air defense.
Throughout his teaching career Macmillan also wrote dozens of short stories for young people, many of them based on folk tales and legends from the Canadian wilderness. Two collections of stories were published during his lifetime, Canadian Wonder Tales (1918), and Canadian Fairy Tales (1922). These collections contained retellings of traditional stories that Macmillan had gathered from personal interviews. He also wrote a commemorative volume, McGill and Its Story (1921), on the occasion of the university’s centennial. He was an editorial writer for the Charlottetown Patriot from 1945 until his death on June 29, 1953, in Fortune Bridge, Prince Edward Island.
Two years after his death, a selection of stories from the earlier collections was published under the title Glooskap’s Country, and Other Indian Tales (1955). The book was named the Canadian Book of the Year for Children in 1957. Through his writing, Macmillan rescued many oral tradition tales from extinction, and several of these tales have since been retold by authors whose writing style is more agreeable to more contemporary readers. Of Macmillan’s three books, only Canadian Fairy Tales is in print, having been reissued by a scholarly press in 2003.