James Reaney-- Matthewvisser 10 ( talk) 16:35, 22 September 2010 (UTC) -- Matthewvisser 10 ( talk) 16:51, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

James Crerar Reaney is an influential Canadian poet and play write. He was born on a farm in Easthope near Stratford, Ontario on September 1, 1926 ^[1] to James Nesbitt Reaney and Elizabeth Herietta Crera ^[2]. Almost all Reaney's poems, stories, and plays are artuculations of where he grew up. ^[3]. At a young age he was interested in theater, and created a puppet show for children while in his early teens ^[4]. He grew up to be one of Canada's best known poets,play writes, librettos, authors, and professors ^[5].

Reaney, from 1966-1979, edited and printed his journal,Alphabet: The Iconography of the Imagination ^[6]. This journal published a variety of poets, including Jay Macpherson, Margaret Atwood, Al Purdy, Milton Acorn, and bp Nichol; and work from such artists as Tony Urquhart, and Greg Curnow ^[7]. He coauthored several operas, with musician John Beckwith, including Night-Blooming Ceraus(1960), The Shivarec(1982), and Crazy To Kill(1988) ^[8]. His play Colours in the Dark was produced at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 1967. The Donelly Trilogy was toured nationally in 1975, touring from Halifax, Canada to the West with the NDWT Theater Company ^[9]. He received his fist Governor General's Award, the first of three, at the age of 23 ^[10].

Reaney enjoyed to paint and draw and his art, from the 1940's to 1990's, were put on exhibit at the McMicheal Canadian Art Collection in Kleinberg, Ontario on June 26 to May 8, 2008 ^[11]. His writing was influenced by Northrop Frye; a man he studied under, who helped Reaney received his Ph.D. ^[12] from the University of Toronto in 1958. After he moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba and taught English at the University of Manitoba and later moved to London, Ontario and taught at the University of Western Ontario ^[13]. Before this he received his Bachelors in 1948 and his Masters in 1949 while attending the University of Toronto ^[14]. Reaney wrote his theses on The Influence of Spensor on Yeats ^[15]. Similarly, Yeats was someone Reaney admired ^[16].

Reaney married on December 29, 1551 to fellow poet Colleen Thibaudeau in St. Thomas ^[17]. He has three children: two sons, James Stewart(1952), John Andrew(1954), born in Toronto, Canada ^[18] and a daughter, Susan Alice Elizabeth(1959) in Winnipeg, Canada ^[19].

Reaney's complex symbolic and poetic regional drama defires categorizing.Reaney’s plays have the combination of symbol, metaphor, chant, poetic incantation, choral speaking, improvisation, miming, and child play. Reaney depends on the concept that we, the audience, are all “children of an older growth” and his audience have responded to this expectation. The symbolic quest as the children search for truth and end in reconciliation with the adult world and the basis of Reaney’s plays ^[20]. Critics have called him a colonial, a rationalist and internationalist, a rabid nationalist, a symbolist, and a poet wit the myth of coherence who is yet able to say something in an age of the random ^[21]. Reaney's poetry, collected in Poems (1962), earned him a reputation as an erudite poet at once deriving structures from the metaphor, mythology, and the cosmopolitan literary tradition while deeply rooted an a regional sense of place ^[22]

James Reaney died on June 11, 2008, in London, Ontario ^[23].

Awards

Invested as CM, (9176) Elected to the FRSC (1978) Govorner General's Award for Poetry in 1949 for The Red Heart, in 1958 for ASuit of Nettles", and Drama for Twelve Letters to a Small Town and The Killdeer and Other Plays Honorary doctorates from Carleton University(1975), McMaster University(1979), Brock University(1991), and the University of Western Ontario(1992) Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Awards in 1975 for The St. Nocholas Hotel University of Alberts National Awards for The Donelly Trilogy ]] ^[24].

Anthologies

Major Plays of the Canadia Theatre, 1934-1984 (Irwin,1984) Modern Canadian Plays (Talon Books,1985) The Boy Social and Other Stories (Porcupine's Quill, 1996)]] ^[25].

Publications

Halloween. Black Moss Press, 1976. Baldoon. Porcupine’s Quill, 1977. The Dismissal drama. Press Porcépic/Beach Holme Publishers, 1978. Wacousta. [[Press Porcépic], 1979. The Boy with an R in His Hand ,juvenile. Porcupine’s Quill, 1980, 1984). Listen to the Wind drama. Talonbooks, 1980. Gyroscope drama. Playwrights Canada Press, 1980. Imprecations: The Art of Swearing. Black Moss Press, 1984. Take the Big Picture, juvenile. Porcupine’s Quill, 1986. Performance Poems. Moonstone Press, 1990. Scripts: Librettos for Operas and Other Musical Works. John Beckwith, ed. Coach House Books, 2004. Souwesto Home. poetry Stan Dragland, ed. Brick Books, 2005. Reaney Days in the West Room. (drama — 7 plays) David Ferry, ed. Playwrights Canada Press, 2009. The Essential James Reaney. poetry Brian Bartlett, ed. Porcupine’s Quill, 2009. ^[26].

References