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John Robert Colombo, CM (born March 24, 1936) is a Canadian author, editor, and poet. He has published over 200 titles, including major anthologies and reference works.
*Harbourfront International Literary Award
*Honorary doctorate in literature by York University
*Member of the Order of Canada
*The Centennial Medal
*The Order of Cyril and Methodius (first class)
*Esteemed Knight of
''Canada Vignettes: Riverdale Lion''
a 1979 visual interpretation by the NFB of the Colombo poem * {{DEFAULTSORT:Colombo, John Robert 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian male writers Canadian male poets Canadian humorists Canadian folklorists Members of the Order of Canada 1936 births Living people University of Toronto alumni Harbourfront Festival Prize winners Canadian book editors Canadian anthologists 21st-century Canadian poets Writers from Kitchener, Ontario 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male non-fiction writers
Early life
Colombo was born inKitchener Kitchener may refer to:
People
* Earl Kitchener, a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
** Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (1850–1916), British Field Marshal and 1st Earl Kitchener
** Henry Kitchener, 2nd Earl Kitchener (1846–1937) ...
, Ontario, in 1936. He attended the University of Toronto, where he began to organize literary events in the late 1950s. He began writing and publishing poetry in the early 1960s; his first book of poetry ''Lines for the Last Days'' was illustrated by William Kurelek
William Kurelek, (March 3, 1927 – November 3, 1977) was a Canadian artist and writer. His work was influenced by his childhood on the prairies, his Ukrainian-Canadian roots, his struggles with mental illness, and his conversion to Roman Cat ...
.Morley, Patricia. Kurelek, A Biography, Macmillan of Canada, 1986, page 151. His imprint Hawkshead Press published Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nin ...
's first collection of poetry in 1963. He also facilitated the appearance of first books of fiction written by Hugh Hood and Alice Munro and the first mass-market publication of a science-fiction story by Robert J. Sawyer. He served as literary manager of the old Bohemian Embassy
The Bohemian Embassy was a coffeehouse and cultural venue in Toronto, Canada, that opened in June 1960 and operated continually in different sites and formats until the early 1990s. Comedian and actor Don Cullen was associated with the establishm ...
in Toronto and wrote poetry and also pioneered "found poetry" in the country. He then moved into editorial positions with some of Toronto's large publishing houses, including McClelland and Stewart and Hurtig Hurtig is a Swedish surname.
Geographical distribution
As of 2014, 48.7% of all known bearers of the surname ''Hurtig'' were residents of Sweden (frequency 1:5,620), 18.5% of the United States (1:543,235), 14.4% of Germany (1:154,286), 7.6% of Finl ...
. During that period, he edited George Grant's ''Lament for a Nation
''Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism'' is a 1965 essay of political philosophy by Canadian philosopher George Grant (philosopher), George Grant. The essay examined the political fate of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's Progr ...
'', and served as managing editor of the Tamarack Review, at the time the leading literary quarterly.
Writing career
In the early 1970s, Colombo began working on the first of many anthologies, a collection of quotations from prominent Canadians titled ''Colombo's Canadian Quotations''. Following the success of the quotations collection, Colombo went on to publish dozens of collections, ranging from bibliographies of Canadian reference works to collections of folk tales, stories of the paranormal, and UFO sightings. As of 2014, Colombo has published over 200 titles, making him the second-most prolific author in Canadian literary history. His anthology writing earned him the nickname "the Master Gatherer" amongst Canadian writers and literary critics. He has also been dubbed "Canada's Mr. Mystery" for his compilations of the paranormal. In the 1990s, Colombo began publishing his writing through his own imprint, Colombo and Company.Works
Recognition
*Harbourfront International Literary Award
*Honorary doctorate in literature by York University
*Member of the Order of Canada
*The Centennial Medal
*The Order of Cyril and Methodius (first class)
*Esteemed Knight of Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
*A Fellow, Northrop Frye Centre, Victoria College, University of Toronto.
See also
* Canadian literature *Canadian poetry
Canadian poetry is poetry of or typical of Canada. The term encompasses poetry written in Canada or by Canadian people in the official languages of English and French, and an increasingly prominent body of work in both other European and Indigenou ...
* List of Canadian poets
References
External links
*''Canada Vignettes: Riverdale Lion''
a 1979 visual interpretation by the NFB of the Colombo poem * {{DEFAULTSORT:Colombo, John Robert 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian male writers Canadian male poets Canadian humorists Canadian folklorists Members of the Order of Canada 1936 births Living people University of Toronto alumni Harbourfront Festival Prize winners Canadian book editors Canadian anthologists 21st-century Canadian poets Writers from Kitchener, Ontario 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian male non-fiction writers