Anne Cochran Wilkinson (September 21, 1910 – May 10, 1961) was a Canadian poetNA NA.
Commonwealth Literature
'. Springer; 3 January 2016. . p. 271–. and writer. She was part of the

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

movement in Canadian poetry in the 1940s and 1950s, one of only a few prominent women poets of the time, along with

Dorothy Livesay Dorothy Kathleen May Livesay, (October 12, 1909 – December 29, 1996) was a Canadian poet who twice won the Governor General's Award in the 1940s, and was "senior woman writer in Canada" during the 1970s and 1980s.Mathews, R.D.. "Dorothy L ...

and P. K. Page.

Early life

Wilkinson was born Anne Gibbons in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, at Craigleigh, the Rosedale home of her maternal grandfather, the banker and Ontario politician Sir Edmund Boyd Osler. The middle child of Mary Osler and lawyer George Gibbons, she grew up in privileged society in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

and, after her father's early death from multiple sclerosis in 1919, in Toronto and

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, and at her grandfather's country estate at Roches Point on

Lake Simcoe Lake Simcoe is a lake in southern Ontario, Canada, the fourth-largest lake wholly in the province, after Lake Nipigon, Lac Seul, and Lake Nipissing. At the time of the first European contact in the 17th century the lake was called ''Ouentironk' ...

Career

By 1946, several of Wilkinson's poems had appeared in

literary journals A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

, and subsequently she published two collections of poetry, ''Counterpoint to Sleep'' (1951) and ''The Hangman Ties the Holly'' (1955), the latter of which was flagged by Northrup Frye as a volume of "poetry of particular importance" that year.Northrop Frye.
The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination
'. House of Anansi Press Incorporated; 13 September 1995. . p. 47–. She also published two books of prose before her untimely death from lung

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in 1961: ''Lions in the Way'' (1956), a history of her maternal family, the Oslers, and ''Swann and Daphne'' (1960), a modern fairy tale for children. A founding editor and patron of the literary quarterly '' The Tamarack Review'', her work appeared in several prominent Canadian publications of the day, including '' Northern Review''. It was anthologized in ''The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse'' (ed. A.J.M. Smith, 1960), '' The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse'' (ed. Ralph Gustafson, 1975), ''Canadian Poetry 1920 to 1960'' (ed. Brian Terhearne, 2010, was broadcast on CBC Radio's ''Anthology'', and was recorded on the album ''Six Toronto Poets'', alongside the poems of W.W.E. Ross,

Raymond Souster Raymond Holmes Souster (January 15, 1921 – October 19, 2012) was a Canadian poet whose writing career spanned over 70 years. More than 50 volumes of his own poetry were published during his lifetime, and he edited or co-edited a dozen volumes ...

Margaret Avison Margaret Avison, (April 23, 1918 – July 31, 2007) was a Canadian poet who twice won Canada's Governor General's Award and has also won its Griffin Poetry Prize.Michael Gnarowski,Avison, Margaret" ''Canadian Encyclopedia'' (Edmonton: Hurtig ...

James Reaney James Crerar Reaney, (September 1, 1926 – June 11, 2008) was a Canadian poet, playwright, librettist, and professor, "whose works transform small-town Ontario life into the realm of dream and symbol." Reaney won Canada's highest literary a ...

and

Jay Macpherson Jean Jay Macpherson (June 13, 1931 – March 21, 2012) was a Canadian lyric poet and scholar. '' The Encyclopædia Britannica'' calls her "a member of 'the mythopoeic school of poetry,' who expressed serious religious and philosophical themes in ...

. Her close friend A. J. M. Smith edited and introduced ''The Collected Poems of Anne Wilkinson and a Prose Memoir'', which was posthumously published in 1968.
Making Canada New: Editing, Modernism, and New Media
'. University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division; 17 March 2017. . p. 120–. Her writing was celebrated by artist/filmmaker

Joyce Wieland Joyce Wieland (June 30, 1930 – June 27, 1998) was a Canadian experimental filmmaker and mixed media artist. Wieland found success as a painter when she began her career in Toronto in the 1950s. In 1962, Wieland moved to New York City and ...

and author

Michael Ondaatje Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller P ...

, and set to music by composer Oskar Morawetz. In the early 1990s it was re-examined by Joan Coldwell, who edited a new edition of the poems, as well as a volume of Wilkinson's autobiographical writings. Wilkinson's work has enjoyed a revival since the publication in 2003 of ''Heresies: The Complete Poems of Anne Wilkinson, 1924–1961'', edited by Dean Irvine, with appearances and discussion in more recent anthologies such as ''An Anthology of Canadian Literature in English'', ''Modern Canadian Poets'',Evan Jones & Todd Swift, editors.
Modern Canadian Poets
'. Carcanet Press; 2010. . p. 33–. ''Wider Boundaries of Daring: The Modernist Impulse in Canadian Women's Poetry'',Di Brandt & Barbara Godard, editors.
Wider Boundaries of Daring: The Modernist Impulse in Canadian Women’s Poetry
'. Wilfrid Laurier University Press; 8 September 2011. . p. 125–. and ''Earth and Heaven, An Anthology of Myth Poetry''.

Selected works

Poetry

*''Counterpoint to Sleep''. Montreal: First Statement Press, 1951. *''The Hangman Ties the Holly''. Toronto: Macmillan, 1955. *''The Collected Poems of Anne Wilkinson and a Prose Memoir'', ed. A.J.M. Smith. Toronto: Macmillan, 1968. *''The Poetry of Anne Wilkinson and a Prose Memoir'', ed. Joan Coldwell. Toronto: Exile Editions, 1990. *''Heresies: The Complete Poems of Anne Wilkinson, 1924–1961'', ed. Dean Irvine. Montreal: Véhicule Press, 2003. *''The Essential Anne Wilkinson - poems'', ed. Ingrid Ruthig. Erin: The Porcupine's Quill, 2014."Review: The Essential Anne Wilkinson, edited by Ingrid Ruthig"
''Bullcalf Review'', February, 2016

Prose

*''Lions in the Way: A Discursive History of the Oslers''. Toronto: Macmillan, 1956. *''Swann and Daphne'', a children's story. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1960. *''The Tightrope Walker: Autobiographical Writings of Anne Wilkinson'', ed. Joan Coldwell. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.

Other

*''Elegy: Voice and Piano'', music Oskar Morawetz, words Anne Wilkinson. Aneneas Music, 1989.

References

External links

Anne Wilkinson
a
The Literary Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkinson, Anne 1910 births 1961 deaths Canadian women poets Writers from Toronto 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian women writers