1. Pelham Edgar was a full professor and head of the Department of English at the Victoria College, Toronto from 1910 to 1938.
30 Facts About Pelham Edgar
1. 2.
Pelham Edgar wrote many articles and several monographs on English literature.
3.
Pelham Edgar had a talent for identifying and encouraging promising new authors.
4.
Pelham Edgar was an active member of various literary societies, and was the force behind the establishment of the Canadian Writers' Foundation to help needy authors.
5.
Oscar Pelham Edgar was born on 17 March 1871, second son of James David Edgar and Matilda Ridout Edgar.
6.
Pelham Edgar's father, a lawyer and Liberal politician, was a minor poet.
7.
Pelham Edgar graduated from University College in 1892 with the Governor-General's Medal in Modern Languages.
8.
Pelham Edgar taught at Upper Canada College from 1892 to 1895.
9.
Pelham Edgar's thesis was about Shelley, a poet who had inspired him as a boy.
10.
Pelham Edgar often criticized Scott's major poems before they were published.
11.
Scott and Pelham Edgar traveled together in Northern Ontario in 1906 on an expedition to make treaties with the Native Americans.
12.
Pelham Edgar was said to have been acting as secretary, but in fact the trip seems to have been more a holiday.
13.
Pelham Edgar had edited a selection of writings by Francis Parkman, but was more interested by the picturesque than the historical elements.
14.
The friendship lasted, and Pelham Edgar published eight articles on Scott's work between 1895 and 1948.
15.
In 1897 Pelham Edgar became a lecturer in the Department of French at Victoria College, Toronto.
16.
Pelham Edgar was head of the department from 1901 to 1910.
17.
Pelham Edgar taught in the Department of English after 1909, and headed the department from 1912 until he retired in 1938.
18.
When judging the poetry competition of 1904 Pelham Edgar was struck by the work of Marjorie Pickthall, and advised her on her poems.
19.
In 1928 Pelham Edgar "discovered" the poet Audrey Alexandra Brown, and promoted her career from then until 1939.
20.
Pelham Edgar explored Henry James's changing theories of fiction in his 1927 book Henry James, Man and Author.
21.
Pelham Edgar was a member of the Athenaeum Club, London, England.
22.
Pelham Edgar was president of the Tennyson Club, Toronto, and president of the Modern Language Association, Ontario.
23.
Pelham Edgar was secretary of the Ontario Education Society from 1908 to 1909.
24.
Pelham Edgar was secretary of the Canadian Society of Authors.
25.
Pelham Edgar was among the founders of the Canadian Authors Association, which first met on 12 March 1921 in the Old Medical Building of McGill University.
26.
In 1936 Pelham Edgar launched the Canadian Poetry Magazine, and initiated the Governor General's Awards.
27.
Pelham Edgar became the first president of the Association of Canadian Bookmen in 1936, an organization dedicated to supporting the booksellers and distributors in Canada.
28.
Pelham Edgar succeeded Sir Robert Falconer as president of the foundation in 1943 and led a thrust to have it incorporated as the Canadian Writers' Foundation in 1945.
29.
Pelham Edgar told the 1945 convention of the Canadian Authors Association of the lack of funds.
30.
Pelham Edgar died in Canton, Ontario, on 7 October 1948.