Person

Birney, Earle, 1904-1995

1904-1995

Earle Alfred Birney was born on May 13, 1904, in Calgary, Alberta.

He was a Canadian poet, novelist, and professor of English. He was educated at the University of British Columbia, Toronto, and California, Berkeley. He lectured in English at the University of Toronto from 1936 to 1941, when he left to serve overseas. After the war, he worked for the CBC, and, in 1946, he joined the Department of English at the University of British Columbia, where he taught the first credit course in creative writing offered by a Canadian university. During the next two decades, Birney added more writing courses and tutorials to the curriculum. In 1964, he became editor of the literary magazine Prism International and affiliated it with the creative writing programme. Birney retired from UBC in 1965 to become a writer-in-residence at Scarborough College at the University of Toronto. He was a well-known poet and writer, publishing novels, volumes of poetry, short stories, essays, and plays. He received the Governor General's medal for poetry twice (1942, 1945), the Lorne Pierce gold medal for Literature (1953), the University of Ontario President's medal for poetry, and the Stephen Leacock medal for humourous writing for his novel “Turvey” (1949). In 1970, Birney was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

In 1933, he married Sylvia Johnstone (annulled in 1937), and, in 1940, he remarried Esther Bull Heiger (1908–2006). He died on August 27, 1995, in Toronto, Ontario.