McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Van Beek, Edith, 1934-2019
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1934-2019
History
Edith Hale Van Beek (née Cheever) was born on November 5, 1934, in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
She was a Canadian poet, writer, and educator. She graduated from Lesley College and Columbia University and began teaching elementary school, which she did for the rest of her career. She spent a few years in Tanzania, Africa, where she helped start a college. In 1967, she met and married Johannes Van Beek (–2010) in Tanzania. In 1968, they emigrated to Ontario, Canada, where she continued teaching in Peel County. Van Beek published four books of poetry, "My Side of Fruit" (1982), "Points Of White" (1988), "Rising About Us" (1994), and "A Himalayan Mind: A Creative View of Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961)" (2000).
She died on June 14, 2019, in Orangeville, Peel County, Ontario.