John Glassco

For this collection John Glassco won the Governor General’s Award in 1971. He intended it as a definitive selection of his best poetry which includes his frequently anthologized poems such as "The Death of Don Quixote", "Brummell at Calais", "Needham Cemetery" and "Quebec Farmhouse".

Glassco’s original selection is presented here in its entirety with additional material and excerpts drawn from his later published work and his translations, together with three short prose pieces dealing with the poetic process, poetry readings and the art of translation.

A craftsman of unusual care, Glassco was known for his sensitivity and wit as well as for his forthright treatment of love, the nostalgia occasioned by the passage of time and the loss of that which we cherish.

John Glassco (1909-1981) published two books of poetry, The Deficit Made Flesh (1958) and A Point of Sky (1964) in addition to Selected Poems (1971). He also wrote Memoirs of Montparnasse (1970 & 1995), a popular account of his days in Paris in the 1920s. Well-known for his skill as a translator, Glassco edited (and translated in part) the important collection, The Poetry of French Canada (1970) as well as the journals and poems of Saint Denys Garneau, Monique Bosco's, Lot's Wife (1970) and Jean-Charles Harvey's Fear's Folly/Les demi-civilises (1982).

Michael Gnarowski, formerly Professor of English at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, has written an introduction giving a brief account of Glassco's life and has supplied some annotation.