George Woodcock

George Woodcock (1912-1995). Courtesy Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing.

George Woodcock (May 8, 1912 - January 28, 1995) FRSC was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a Canadian poet, and published several volumes of travel writing. In 1959 he founded the literary magazine Canadian Literature, the first academic journal specifically dedicated to Canadian writing. He is perhaps best remembered elsewhere for writing Anarchism: A history of libertarian ideas and movements (1962), the first post-War history of anarchism.

Life

Woodcock was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but moved with his parents to England at an early age, attending Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow and then Morley College. Though his family was quite poor, Woodcock had the opportunity to go to Oxford University on a scholarship; however, he turned down the chance, because he would have had to acknowledge a religious affiliation. Instead, he took a job as a clerk at the Great Western Railway and it was there that he first became interested in anarchism (specifically libertarian socialism). He was to remain an anarchist for the rest of his life, writing several books on the subject, including Anarchism, the anthology The Anarchist Reader (1977), and biographies of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Oscar Wilde and Peter Kropotkin.

It was during these years that he met several prominent literary figures, including T.S. Eliot and Aldous Huxley. He first came to know George Orwell after the two had a public disagreement in the pages of the Partisan Review. Orwell wrote that in the context of a war against Fascism, pacifism was "objectively pro-Fascist". As a pacifist himself, Woodcock took exception to this. Despite this difference, the two met and became good friends. Woodcock later wrote The Crystal Spirit (1966), a critical study of Orwell and his work which won a Governor General's Award.

Woodcock spent World War II working on a farm, as a conscientious objector. At Camp Angel in Oregon, a camp for conscientious objectors, he was a founder of the Untide Press, which sought to bring poetry to the public in an inexpensive but attractive format. Following the war, he returned to Canada, eventually settling in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1955, he took a post in the English department of the University of British Columbia, where he stayed until the 1970s. Around this time he started to write more prolifically, producing several travel books and collections of poetry, as well as the works on anarchism for which he is best known.

Towards the end of his life, Woodcock became increasingly interested in what he saw as the plight of Tibetans. He travelled to India, studied Buddhism, became friends with the Dalai Lama and established the Tibetan Refugee Aid Society. He and his wife Inge also established Canada India Village Aid, which sponsors self-help projects in rural India. Both organizations exemplify Woodcock's ideal of voluntary cooperation between peoples across national boundaries.

George and Inge also established a program to support professional Canadian writers. The Woodcock Fund, which began in 1989, provides financial assistance to writers in mid-book-project who face an unforeseen financial need that threatens the completion of their book. The Fund is available to writers of fiction, creative non-fiction, plays, and poetry. The Woodcocks helped create an endowment for the program in excess of two million dollars. The Woodcock Fund program is administered by the Writers’ Trust of Canada and has distributed $772,147 to 164 Canadian writers, as of July 2010.

Recognition

GEORGE WOODCOCK, Anarchist of Cherry Street

Woodcock was honoured with several awards, including a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada in 1968, the UBC Medal for Popular Biography in 1973 and 1976, and the Molson Prize in 1973. However, he only accepted awards given by his peers, refusing several awards given by the Canadian state, including the Order of Canada. The one exception was the award of the Freedom of the City of Vancouver, which he accepted in 1994.

He is the subject of a biography, The Gentle Anarchist: A Life of George Woodcock by George Fetherling (1998).

Publications

Poetry

• Six Poems. London: Blue Moon Press for E. Lahr, 1938. (Single sheet of grey stiff paper folded into four).
• Selected Poems. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1967.
• Notes on Visitations: Poems, 1936-75. Toronto: House of Anansi, 1975.
• Anima; or, Swann grown old: A cycle of poems. Windsor, ON: Black Moss Press, 1977.
• The Kestrel, and other poems of past and present. Sunderland, Durham, UK: Coelfrith Press, 1978.
• The Mountain Road. Fredericton, NB: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1980..
• Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana, & other poems. Kingston, ON: Quarry Press, 1991.
• The Cherry Tree on Cherry Street, and other poems. Kingston, ON: Quarry Press, 1994.

Plays

• Two Plays. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1977.

Non-fiction

Literary criticism

• British Poetry Today. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 1950.
• The Crystal Spirit: A study of George Orwell. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966.
• Dawn and the Darkest Hour: A study of Aldous Huxley. New York: Viking, 1972.
• Colony and Confederation: Early Canadian poets and their background. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1974.
• Poets and Critics: Essays from 'Canadian Literature', 1966-1974. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1974.
• The Canadian Novel in the Twentieth Century: Essays from Canadian Literature'. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1975.
• Canadian Poets, 1960-1973: A checklist. Ottawa: Golden Dog Press, 1976.
• The World of Canadian Writing: Critiques and recollections. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1980.
• The Meeting of Time and Space: Regionalism in Canadian literature. Edmonton, AB: NeWest Institute for Western Canadian Studies, 1981.
• Northern Spring: The Flowering of Canadian Literature in English. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1987.
• George Woodcock’s Introduction to Canadian Fiction. Toronto: ECW Press, 1992.
• George Woodcock’s Introduction to Canadian Poetry. Toronto: ECW Press, 1992.

Anarchism

• Anarchy or Chaos. London: Freedom Press, 1944; Willimantec, CT: Lysander Spooner, 1992.
• Anarchism: A history of libertarian ideas and movements. Cleveland, Meridian Books, 1962.
• Anarchism and Anarchists: Essays. Kingston, ON: Quarry Press, 1992.

Biography

• Mohandas Gandhi. New York: Vintage, 1971. London: Fontana/Collins, 1972, as Gandhi.
• Gabriel Dumont: The Métis chief and his lost world. Edmonton, AB: Hurtig, 1975.
• Amor de Cosmos: Journalist and reformer. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1975.
• The Anarchist Prince: A biographical Study of Peter Kropotkin (with Ivan Avakumovic), 1950; New York: Shocken, 1971.
• Thomas Merton, Monk and Poet: A critical study. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1978; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978.
• The Incomparable Aphra. London: T.V. Boardman, 1948;
  • also published as Aphra Behn: The English Sappho. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1989.
• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: A biography. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1987.
• William Godwin: A biographical study. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1989.

History

• The Doukhobors (with Ivan Avakumovic). London: Faber & Faber, 1968.
• The Hudson's Bay Company. New York: Crowell-Collier Press, 1970.
• Into Tibet: The early British explorers. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1971.
• Who Killed the British Empire?: An inquest. London: Jonathan Cape, 1974.
• The Century that Made Us: Canada, 1814–1914. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Canadiana

• Victoria: Photo-essay by Ingeborg & George Woodcock. Victoria, BC: Morriss Printing, 1971.
• Canada and the Canadians (photos by Ingeborg Woodcock). Toronto: Macmillan, 1973.
• Peoples of the Coast: The Indians of the Pacific northwest . Edmonton, AB: Hurtig, 1977.
• 100 Great Canadians. Edmonton, AB: Hurtig, 1980.
• Confederation Betrayed!. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1981.
• Strange Bedfellows: The state and the arts in Canada. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1985.
• The University of British Columbia: A souvenir (with Tim Fitzharris). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 1986.
• A Social History of Canada. Markham, ON: Penguin Books, 1989
• British Columbia: A history of the province. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1990.

Travel

• Ravens and Prophets. London: A. Wingate, 1952. Victoria, BC: Sono Nis Press, 1993.
• Faces of India: A travel narrative. London: Faber, 1964.
• South Sea Journey. Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1976.
• Caves in the Desert: Travels in China. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1988.

Essays

• Rejection of Politics, and other essays on Canada, Canadians, anarchism, and the world. Toronto: New Press, 1972.
• Orwell's Message: 1984 & the present. Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1984.
• Powers of Observation. Kingston, ON: Quarry Press, 1989.

Edited

• Now (magazine). London: Freedom Press. 1st series: 1940-1941; 2nd series: 1943-1947.
• Canadian Literature (quarterly; edited by Woodcock, 1959-1977). Vancouver: University of British Columbia.
• The Anarchist Reader. London: Fontana, 1977.

Letters

• Taking it to the Letter. Dunvegan, ON: Quadrant Editions, 1981.
• The Purdy-Woodcock Letters: Selected correspondence, 1964-1984. Toronto: ECW Press, 1988.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the George Woodcock LIterary Achievement Awards .

See also

• List of Canadian poets
• List of literary critics
• Timeline of Canadian poetry

External links

Poems

• "The Hero"
• George Woodcock at AllPoetry (8 poems)

Books

• George Woodcock: A Virtual Display
  • Biographies, Literary Criticism
  • Canadian subjects, History, Travel
  • Anarchism, Essays, Periodicals
  • Poetry and Plays
• The Works of George Woodcock at GeorgeWoodcock.com.

Audio / video

• "The Tyranny of the Clock", free mp3 recitation of Woodcock's essay of the same name.
• George Woodcock at YouTube
• The Anarchist of Cherry Steet," CBC documentary.

About

• George Woodcock in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• George Woodcock in the Canadian Encyclopedia
• George Woodcock (1912–1995),in Canadian Literature
• George Woodcock in the Anarchist Encyclopedia.
• Woodcock, George at ABC Bookworld.
• "In Canada and Abroad: The diverse publishing career of George Woodcock" at Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing
• "Anarchism by George Woodcock" a Review by Frank Mintz

Etc.

• George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award Official website.
• George Woodcock fonds at Queen's University Archives

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