Pelham Edgar

Oscar Pelham Edgar
Edgar in 1909, from Acta Victoriana, magazine of Victoria College, Toronto
Born	1871 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died	1948
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Professor of English
Known for	Canadian Writers’ Foundation

Oscar Pelham Edgar (1871–1948) was a Canadian teacher. He was a full professor and head of the Department of English at the Victoria College, Toronto from 1910 to 1938. He wrote many articles and several monographs on English literature. He was the force behind the establishment of the Canadian Writers’ Foundation to help needy authors.

Life

Oscar Pelham Edgar was born in 1871 in Toronto, Ontario. His parents were James David Edgar and Matilda Ridout Edgar. He was educated at Upper Canada College. He attended the University of Toronto and obtained a B.A. degree in 1892. He taught at Upper Canada College from 1892 to 1895. In 1893 he married Helen Madeline Boulton.

Edgar left Upper Canada College to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he earned a PhD in 1897. That year he became a lecturer at Victoria College, Toronto, in the Department of French. He was head of the department from 1901 to 1910. In 1902 he started to also give lectures in the Department of English. He transferred to this department in 1910 as a full professor and head of department until 1938.

When judging the poetry competition of 1904 Edgar was struck by the work of Marjorie Pickthall (1883–1922), and advised her on her poems. They began to be published regularly in the college's Acta Victoriana magazine. In 1920 he invited the poet E. J. Pratt (1882–1964), then a demonstrator-lecturer in psychology at the university, to join the faculty of the Department of English. Pratt was promoted to Professor in 1930 and then Senior Professor in 1938, the year that Edgar retired. In 1928 Edgar "discovered" the poet Audrey Alexandra Brown 1904–1998), and promoted her career from then until 1939. George Benson Johnston (1913–2004), the poet, was another of Edgar's students.

A description of Edgar around 1926 said, "He was then in his middle fifties, tall and spare, with piercing dark eyes under thick eyebrows and a wealth of lustrous black hair. His aquiline nose surmounted the largest black mustache I had ever seen – it was difficult not to stare at in fascination."

In 1931 Edgar created the Canadian Authors Foundation to provide a perpetual fund "for the benefit of any men or women of distinction in Canadian letters (or their dependents) ... in destitution." At his request Lord Bessborough, the Governor-General of Canada, was the first patron of the society. However, during the Great Depression it had difficulty obtaining any funds. Sir Robert Falconer was president of the foundation. Edgar succeeded him in 1943 and led a thrust to have it incorporated as the Canadian Writers’ Foundation in 1945. He also managed to start a permanent endowment fund for the foundation.

Edgar's first wife died in 1933, and in 1935 he married Dona Gertrude Cameron Waller. They had one daughter. Pelham Edgar died in 1948. Northrop Frye described him as a "uniquely important figure in Canadian letters."

Associations and awards

Edgar was a member of the Athenaeum Club, London, England. He was secretary of the Canadian Society of Authors. He was president of the Tennyson Club, Toronto, and president of the Modern Language Association, Ontario. He was secretary of the Ontario Education Society from 1908 to 1909. He was the founder of the Canadian Writers' Foundation. In 1915 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1936 he received the Royal Society's Lorne Pierce Medal for distinguished service to Canadian literature.

Works

Edgar published many reviews and articles. Publications include:

• Edgar, Pelham (1899). A study of Shelley: With special reference to his nature poetry. Haskell House. GGKEY:59ZRZF91D7S. Retrieved 2014-07-10.
• Edgar, Pelham (1902). Coleridge and Wordsworth Select Poems Prescribed for the Matriculation and Departmental Examinations for 1903 Edited with Introduction and Notes. Morang Educational Company. ISBN 978-1-175-63589-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Parkman, Francis; Edgar, Pelham (1902). The Struggle for a Continent. Edited from the Writings of F. Parkman, by P. Edgar, Etc. Cambridge, U.S.A: Macmillan & Company. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Edgar, Pelham (1904). Shelley's Debt to Eighteenth Century Thought. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Tennyson, Alfred; Edgar, Pelham (1906). Tennyson: Select Poems Edited with Introduction and Notes. Morang Educational Company. ISBN 978-1-245-17019-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Buehler, Huber Gray; Edgar, Pelham (1907). A Modern English Grammar. Morang Educational Company. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-175-36937-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Meilhac, Henri; Edgar, Pelham; Halévy, Ludovic (1907). L'Été de Saint-Martin ... Edited by Pelham Edgar. With a vocabulary by A.F.B. Clark. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hugo, Victor; Edgar, Pelham; Squair, John (1911). The Poetry of Victor Hugo. Boston: Ginn. ISBN 978-1-171-55534-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Edgar, Pelham (1911). Canadian Literature. Victoria University Students Administration Council. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Edgar, Pelham (1916). "Canada". Cambridge History of English Literature.
• Edgar, Pelham (1916). The Comedy of Shakespeare and Molière. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Edgar, Pelham (1925). Henry James: Man and Author. London: Grant Richards. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Edgar, Pelham (1933). The art of the novel from 1700 to the present time. Macmillan. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Edgar, Pelham (1939). The Enigma of Yeats. p. 422. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Edgar, Pelham (1947). Sir Andrew MacPhail. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Edgar, Pelham (1952). Northrop Frye (ed.). Across My Path. Autobiographical writings. Ryerson Press. p. 167. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

• Dictionary of National Biography. Canadian adviser. 1911.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
• Edgar, Pelham. The Aspects of Poetry. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

References

Citations

Sources

• "Audrey Alexandra Brown fonds". University of Victoria. Retrieved 2014-07-10.
• E.J. Pratt: Biography. University of Toronto Libraries. Retrieved 2014-07-10. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Godard, Barbara (2005). "PICKTHALL, MARJORIE LOWRY CHRISTIE". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 15. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Retrieved 2014-07-10. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help).
• Little, C.H. (Summer 1983). "Pelham Edgar: A tribute". Canadian Author & Bookman. 58 (4). Retrieved 2014-07-10. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• New, William H. (2002). Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-0761-2. Retrieved 2014-07-10. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Pelham Edgar". Victoria University Library. Retrieved 2014-07-10.