Patrick Anderson
Patrick John MacAllister Anderson was a notable English-Canadian writer and educator, born on August 4, 1915, in Ashtead, Surrey, England. He experienced a challenging childhood marked by his parents' divorce, which influenced his later work. Anderson's literary talents emerged early, leading him to achieve degrees from the University of Oxford, where he also presided over the Oxford Union. His career began in Montreal in 1940, coinciding with a vibrant period in Canadian literature as it sought its identity. He was heavily involved in the literary scene, founding influential publications like Preview, which showcased modernist poetry with a Marxist perspective. Anderson's teaching career spanned several countries, including Canada, Malaysia, and England, and he produced a diverse body of work, including poetry, autobiographical writing, and children's literature. His poetry is recognized for its passionate lyricism and rich metaphors, impacting the development of modern Canadian poetry. He returned to Canada in 1971, where he continued to engage with the literary community until his passing on March 17, 1979, in Halstead, Essex, England.
Subject Terms
Patrick Anderson
English-born Canadian poet and teacher.
- Born: August 4, 1915
- Birthplace: Ashtead, Surrey, England
- Died: March 17, 1979
- Place of death: Halstead, Essex, England
Biography
Patrick John MacAllister Anderson was born in Ashtead, Surrey, England, on August 4, 1915. His parents divorced when he was still a young boy, contributing to a rather unhappy childhood. His talents as writer were already in evidence at age twelve, however. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Oxford, where he also served as president of the Oxford Union. From 1938 to 1940, he pursued graduate studies at Columbia University in New York City on a Commonwealth Fellowship.
He began his teaching career in Montreal in 1940, at Selwyn House, a private school, where he taught for the next six years. It was a dynamic time of development in Canadian writing as it searched for its own identity. At this time also, Anderson became attracted to Freudian psychology and Marxism, which influenced both the subject matter and imagery of his early poetry. In April, 1941, he and his wife, Peggy Doernbach, began publishing a poetry newsletter, The Andersons. It was soon followed by another, the Victory Broadsheet, and then En Masse, which also had but a short life. They were, however, important attempts for Anderson to shape both the literary and political landscape of his new country.
In 1942, Anderson expanded that influence when he, with the help of F. R. Scott and others, founded a new literary magazine, Preview. As its leading editor, he gave Preview a pronounced Marxist edge while promoting a modernist poetics, largely inspired by British poets of the 1930s. But this publication too, though influential, died a quiet death in 1945.
That was also the year that Patrick Anderson became a Canadian citizen. His marriage was now in trouble, and in 1947 he went back to England alone. After a year there, he returned to Montreal to accept a teaching position at McGill University. He left that position abruptly in 1950 and spent the next two years teaching at the University of Malaya. He returned to England in 1952, where he taught at Dudley Training and Trent Park Colleges. There he earned a literary recognition for his autobiographical works and travel accounts. There he also wrote a children’s book and edited an anthology, Eros, with his companion, Alistair Sutherland.
Anderson in later life recanted Marxism. He finally returned to Canada in 1971 in response to invitations from various eastern universities to read from his works and to serve as visiting professor at the University of Ottawa. From then on he spent time living in both countries. His last book, published in 1977, reflected that part of his life: Return to Canada: Selected Poems. He died in Halstead, Essex, England, on March 17, 1979.
Anderson helped shape the development of modern Canadian poetry, primarily through his dominant presence in Preview. Through that magazine and some of his own poetry he promoted and illustrated literary sophistication and the poetic power of the contemporary voice that influenced many Canadian poets after him. His best poetry is marked by passion, a sensuous lyricism, and metaphoric richness.
Author Works
Edited text(s):
Eros: An Anthology of Male Friendship, 1961
Nonfiction:
Snake Wine: A Singapore Episode, 1955
Search Me: Autobiography; The Black Country, Canada, and Spain, 1958
Finding Out about the Athenians, 1961
The Character Ball: Chapters of Autobiography, 1963
Dolphin Days: A Writer's Notebook of Mediterranean Pleasures, 1963
The Smile of Apollo: A Literary Companion to Greek Travel, 1964
Over the Alps: Reflections on Travel and Travel Writing with Special Reference on the Grand Tours of Boswell, 1969
Foxed! Or, Life in the Country, 1972
Poetry:
A Tent for April, 1945
The White Centre, 1946
The Colour as Naked, 1953
A Visiting Distance: Poems, 1976
Return to Canada: Selected Poems, 1977
Bibliography
Alt, Marlene. "Patrick Anderson." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2 July 2008, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/patrick-anderson/. Accessed 30 June 2017. Brief biography.
Holden, Philip. "‘Somewhere Foreign Enough to Belong To’: Patrick Anderson, Cosmopolitanism and Its Discontents." Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, vol. 18, no. 4, 2016, doi:10.1080/1369801X.2015.1126190. Accessed 30 June 2017. Discusses Anderson's time teaching poetry in Singapore in the early 1950s, and evaluates the implications of his brand of transnational modernism for Singapore writers.
Gnarowski, Michael. "New Facts and Old Fictions: Some Notes on Patrick Anderson, 1945 and En Masse." Canadian Poetry, vol. 6, 1980, www.canadianpoetry.ca/cpjrn/vol06/gnarowski.htm. Accessed 30 June 2017. Revisits the personalities, politics, and events surrounding the end of the publication Preview and the launch of Northern Review, both of which were edited by Anderson.
Whitney, Patricia. "From Oxford to Montreal: Patrick Anderson’s Political Development." Canadian Poetry, vol. 19, 1986, www.uwo.ca/english/canadianpoetry/cpjrn/vol19/whitney.htm. Accessed 30 June 2017. Discusses Anderson's involvement in left-wing politics, especially as editor of the magazines Preview and En Masse.