John Sutherland
John M. A. Sutherland was a Canadian editor and literary critic, born on February 21, 1919, in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. He pursued his education at Queen's University and McGill University, and married Audrey Aikman in 1943. Sutherland's career, though brief, significantly influenced Canadian poetry by advocating for innovative and direct language in literature. He founded the magazine *First Statement* in 1942, which played a crucial role in promoting emerging poets of the 1940s, including figures like Louis Dudek and Irving Layton. In 1945, he merged this magazine with *Preview* to create *Northern Review*, where he served as managing editor. Sutherland was also critical of the older generation of Canadian poets, urging them to move away from sentimentality and embrace higher aesthetic standards. He is recognized for his posthumous works, particularly *The Poetry of E. J. Pratt: A New Interpretation* and *John Sutherland: Essays, Controversies, and Poems*. Sutherland's contributions continue to resonate in the Canadian literary landscape, reflecting his commitment to pushing the boundaries of poetry during his time.
Subject Terms
John Sutherland
Canadian poet, literary critic, and magazine editor
- Born: February 21, 1919
- Birthplace: Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Died: September 1, 1956
- Place of death:Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Biography
John M. A. Sutherland was born on February 21, 1919, in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Canada. He attended Queen’s University, Kingston, from 1936 to1937, and McGill University, in Montreal, in 1941. He married Audrey Aikman on November 27, 1943, and he died in Montreal, of cancer, on September 1, 1956. In his brief career as an editor and critic, he helped to bring Canadian poetry forward by decades.
In September 1942, he founded First Statement, a magazine that would also sponsor a series of influential chapbooks in the next few years, for example, Sutherland’s Other Canadians: An Anthology of the New Poetry in Canada, 1940–1946 (1947), which featured several new poets of the 1940s, including Louis Dudek, Irving Layton, and Raymond Souster. Sutherland’s introduction to this anthology took the older generation of Canadian poets to task for their sentimentality and provincialism. In 1945 Sutherland merged the magazine with Preview to become Northern Review, and he became the managing editor.
In his reviews and in the dozen or so poems Sutherland published in his lifetime, he called for innovative and direct language, less tolerance for literary generalizations, and higher aesthetic standards in both poetry and poetry criticism. He is known best for two posthumous books, The Poetry of E. J. Pratt: A New Interpretation (1956) and John Sutherland: Essays, Controversies, and Poems (1972), collected and edited by Miriam Waddington.
Author Works
Edited Text(s):
Other Canadians: An Anthology of the New Poetry in Canada, 1940–1946, 1947
Miscellaneous:
John Sutherland: Essays, Controversies, and Poems, 1972
Nonfiction:
The Poetry of E. J. Pratt: A New Interpretation, 1956
Bibliography
"Sutherland, John." Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada. Edited by William H. New. U of Toronto P, 2002. Outlines the life and work of John Sutherland.
"Sutherland, John." The Canadian Encyclopedia, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-sutherland. Accessed 30 June 2017. Presents a brief biography of Sutherland.
Waddington, Miriam. John Sutherland: Essays, Controversies and Poems. McClelland and Stewart, 1972. Collects a substantial selection of Sutherland’s criticism and poems.
Waddington, Miriam. "All Nature into Motion: John Sutherland’s Poetry." Canadian Literature, vol. 41, 1969, 73–85. Presents a biography of Sutherland, analyzes his poetry, and discusses his influence as an editor and critic.
Whiteman, Bruce, editor. The Letters of John Sutherland, 1942–1956. ECW Press, 1993. A collection of the personal correspondence of John Sutherland, offering documentation of a period of Canadian poetry and revealing the economics and process of publishing books and magazines in postwar Canada.