George Whalley

George Whalley (1915-1983) in 1968. Courtesy GeorgeWhalley.ca.

George Whalley
Born	Arthur George Cuthbert Whalley July 25, 1915 Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Died	May 27, 1983 Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Professor, Queen's University
Nationality	Canadian
Genres	Literary Criticism; Poetry; Biography
Notable work(s)	Poetic Process, No Man An Island, The Legend of John Hornby
Influences Samuel Taylor Coleridge

George Whalley (25 July 1915 - 27 May 1983) was a Canadian poet, academic, scholar, CBC broadcaster, musician, biographer, and translator, as well as a naval officer and secret intelligence agent during World War II.

Life

Youth and education

His brother, Peter Whalley, was a famous artist and cartoonist.

George Whalley attended St. Alban's School in Brockville, Ontario, from 1922 to 1930.

He earned a B.A. at Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec, graduating in 1935. As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed a 2nd B.A. at Oriel College, Oxford, in 1939, then took time off to serve in World War II.

He earned an M.A. from Oriel College in 1945, and a M.A. degree at Bishop's University in 1948. His thesis was entitled "A Critique of Criticism."

He earned a Ph.D. from King's College, University of London, in 1950.

Career

Whalley served in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, 1940-1956, and was on active duty in the Royal Navy, 1940-1945. He served on warships (including HMS Tartar and HMS Ceres), participating in the pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck and saving a life at sea (for which he was awarded a Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal); worked as a naval intelligence officer; designed a marker buoy used during the Sicily landing in 1943; and secretly tested surfboats used to land Allied agents in Europe covertly in preparation for the invasion of Normandy in 1944.

He married Elizabeth Watts on July 25, 1944. They had 3 children: Katharine, Christopher, and Emily.

After the war, Whalley served as the Commander to HMCS Cataraqui in Kingston, 1952–1956. He retired with the rank of Commander in 1956.

He taught English at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, for 30 years (1950-1980), and was twice the head of the department.

Writing

The Writings and Life of George Whalley Presented by Michael DiSanto

Poetry

Whalley published 2 collections of poems written during World War II. Poems, 1939-1944 was issued as part of the Ryerson Poetry Chapbook series in 1946. It contains 17 poems. No Man An Island, appeared in 1948. It contains 41 poems, a few of which are reprinted from the chapbook. The Collected Poems of George Whalley, edited by George Johnston, is currently the most complete collection available, containing 76 poems, and all of the poems that appeared in the two earlier books. Whalley's "rare body of wartime poetry" has been praised as "war poems [that] display a mature range and scope that is unmatched by any other of the second world war poets".

Coleridge Scholarship

Whalley was a leading expert on the writings of poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled S.T. Coleridge: Library Cormorant.

He published over 20 scholarly essays and articles on Coleridge's poetry, letters, criticism, and marginalia, which appeared in numerous journals including Queen's Quarterly, University of Toronto Quarterly, and Review of English Studies.

For 30 years, he collected and organized Coleridge's marginalia, which was published in 6 volumes as part of the Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Whalley edited the first two volumes and was named as a co-editor, with H.J. Jackson, for the other four.

John Hornby & Edgar Christian

Whalley's interest in the story of John Hornby began when he read Unflinching, the edition of Edgar Christian's diary that was published in 1937. In the 1950s, Whalley began a careful study by studying the existing documents, contacting the Christian family, and travelling to the Thelon River site of the Hornby camp. He wrote "Death in the Barren Ground", a 60-minute radio feature for CBC radio (originally broadcast March 3, 1954), based on Christian's diary and the Hornby legend. A television version was broadcast on CBC Explorations on 28 October 1959. In The Legend of John Hornby, published in 1962, and Death in the Barren Ground: The Diary of Edgar Christian, published in 1980, Whalley wrote remarkable accounts of the relationship that tied Hornby and Christian together and led to their deaths.

Recognition

Whalley was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1959.

Publications

A full bibliography of Whalley's publications, including articles, reviews, and broadcasts, is available. Listed here are books only.

Poetry

• Poems, 1939-44. Toronto: Ryerson (Poetry Chap-Book No 116), 1946.
• No Man an Island. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1948.
• Collected Poems (edited by George Johnston). Kingston: Quarry Press, 1986.

Non-fiction

• Poetic Process. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953; Cleveland, OH: Meridian Boosk, 1967; Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1973.
• Coleridge and Sara Hutchinson and the Asra Poems. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1955; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1955.
• The Legend of John Hornby. London: John Murray, 1962; Toronto: Macmillan, 1962.

Translated

• Aristotle, Aristotle's Poetics (edited by John Baxter & Patrick Atherton). Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997.

Edited

• George Herbert Clarke, Selected Poems (with foreword by Whalley & introduction by W.O. Raymond). Toronto: Ryerson, 1954.
• Writing in Canada: Proceedings of the Canadian Writers' Conference, Queen's University, 28–31 July 1955] (with preface by Whalley & introduction by F.R. Scott). Toronto: Macmillan, 1956.
• A Place of Liberty, Essays on the government of Canadian universities. (inclues an essay “Further Proposals” (154-75) by Whalley). Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1964.
• E.J. Pratt,Birthright to the Sea: Some poems. St. John's, NL: Memorial University, 1978.
• Christopher Pepys, 1914-1974: A remembrance by his friends. Oxford, UK: privately published (printed by Alden Press), 1980.
• Edgar Vernon Christian, Death in the Barren Ground: The diary of Edgar Christian (with introduction by Whalley. Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1980.
• Studies in Literature and the Humanities: Innocence of intent (edited with Brian Crick and John Ferns). Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1985.

Coleridge Marginalia

• Marginalia I (Abbt to Byfield): The collected works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, No. 12.1. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press / London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.
• Marginalia 2 (Camden to Hutton): The collected works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, No. 12.2. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press / London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985.
• Marginalia III (Irving to Oxlee): The collected works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, No. 12.3 (edited with H.J. Jackson). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press / London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1992.
• Marginalia IV (Pamphlets to Shakespeare): The collected works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (edited with H.J. Jackson)). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press / London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1998.
• Marginlia V (Sherlock to Unidentified): The collected works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, No. 12.5 (edited with H.J. Jackson). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press / London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1999.
• Marginalia VI (Valckenaer to Zwick; addenda; index): The collected works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, No. 12.6 (edited with H.J. Jackson). Princeton, NJ:: Princeton University Press / London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2001.

George Whalley - The Complete Poems

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of Canadian poets

External links

Poems

• Poems at GeorgeWhalley.ca (3 poems)

Audio / video

• Listen to Brian Brockenshire narrate a short film of George Whalley's life
• Listen to George Whalley narrate The Living Stone
• George Whalley narrated Morning on the Lievre
• George Whalley narrated Correlieu
• George Whalley documentary

Books

• George Whalley at Amazon.ca

About

• George Whalley Official website.