Collected Poems

by Al Purdy

Includes index. Very clean and tight copy. 6 1/4" x 9 1/4". Minor marks in pen. Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact. Previous owner's name press-stamped. All edges are clean. Not Ex-Library. All books offered from DSB are stocked at our store in Fayetteville, AR. Shipped Under 1 kilogram. Poetry; 0771072155. ISBN/ 9780771072154. Inventory 026370.

Genres: Poetry

Audio Cassette

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Alfred Wellington Purdy was one of the most popular and important Canadian poets of the 20th century. Purdy's writing career spanned more than fifty years. His works include over thirty books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four books of correspondence. He has been called the nation's "unofficial poet laureate".

Born in Wooler, Ontario Purdy went to Albert College in Belleville, Ontario, and Trenton Collegiate Institute in Trenton, Ontario. He dropped out of school at 17 and rode the rails west to Vancouver. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Following the war, he worked in various jobs until the 1960s, when he was finally able to support himself as a writer, editor and poet.

Honours and awards Purdy received include the Order of Canada (O.C.) in 1982, the Order of Ontario in 1987, and the Governor General's Award, in 1965 for his collection The Cariboo Horses, and again in 1986 for The Collected Poems of Al Purdy. The League of Canadian Poets gave Purdy the Voice of the Land Award, a special award created by the League to honour his unique contribution to Canada.

Al Purdy died in North Saanich, B.C., on April 21, 2000. His final collection of poetry, Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy, was released posthumously in the fall of 2000.

On May 20, 2008, a large bronze statue of Purdy was unveiled in Queen's Park in downtown Toronto.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 ✨

If not the greatest Canadian poet of past, one of the greatest. But I don't know to be honest since I've read non-published writers who are really good (tbc he is amazing). Some whom don't even go the route of publishing companies because it's a meat market, energy expenditure. Excuse the expression, it's not a favourite meat market. He quit his other method of income to write full time. He died in 2000 from assisted suicide - he was old and dying and I guess felt it necessary. Probably not feeling well either. (I digress, didn't find out he offed himself until years later browsing the library. Definitely a pioneer of sorts.)

Writing like a lot of art forms appears easy until you actually do it. Living with the stuff too is overwhelming. A giant for sure. I have one poem I specifically like more than the others, it loosely inspired me to write a bit in one of my poems, "as secretaries roll their eyes cooler than honey beside you......" Anyway I was reminded of it after. I like to give credit where it's due. Bragging less more like sometime easier to express in descriptive and comparison.

Good luck finding it though because I couldn't and wanted to read again. I love when literature puts me in a buzz since it doesn't happen often. A multitude of poems are packed into this collection.

[Vic Cavalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listening to Al Purdy read his poetry at UBC when I was a grad student literally changed my life as a writer. He was so grounded and funny and deep simultaneously. It was as if I suddenly realized I didn't have to fake anything anymore, that I could relax and throw all of myself roughly and imperfectly into my writing. That perhaps I too was a sensitive man!