E. J. Pratt

E. J. Pratt
E. J. Pratt, 1944
Born	Edwin John Dove Pratt (1882-02-04)February 4, 1882 Western Bay, Newfoundland
Died	April 26, 1964(1964-04-26) (aged 82) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Language	English
Nationality	Canadian
Citizenship	British subject
Education	Master of Arts
Alma mater	University of Toronto (Victoria College)
Genre	Poetry
Notable awards	Governor General's Award, FRSC, Lorne Pierce Medal
Spouse	Viola Whitney Pratt

University of Toronto

Edwin John Dove Pratt, FRSC CMG (February 4, 1882 – April 26, 1964), who published as E. J. Pratt, was "the leading Canadian poet of his time." He was a Canadian poet originally from Newfoundland who lived most of his life in Toronto, Ontario. A three-time winner of the country's Governor General's Award for poetry, he has been called "the foremost Canadian poet of the first half of the century."

EJ Pratt was born Edwin John Dove Pratt in Western Bay, Newfoundland, on February 4, 1882. He was brought up in a variety of Newfoundland communities as his father John Pratt was posted around the colony as a Methodist minister. John Pratt was originally a lead miner from Old Gang mines in Gunnerside - a village in North Yorkshire, England. In 1850’s he became a Methodist pastor and immigrated to Newfoundland and settled down with Fanny Knight, a daughter of Capt. William Chancey Knight. EJ Pratt and his seven siblings were under strict control of their father, who had high expectations of all of them. While John was strict and stern father, who had firm authority with which he ruled his family, Edwin and his siblings got a bit of a break when his father was gone on pastoral rounds, since their mother was very different in temperament from her husband. “Fanny Pratt was easy-going and unpunctilious where John was careful and exacting, lenient and forbearing where he was strict and inflexible, soft hearted where he was hard-headed – she inevitably had a closer, more comradely relationship with the children. Raised in a less rigoristic household than he, she was prepared to take her children for what they were, make allowances for their fallen natures, and generally overlook their innocent iniquities” E.J. Pratt's brother, Calvert Pratt, became a Canadian Senator.

E.J. Pratt graduated from St. John's, Newfoundland's Methodist College in 1901. Like his father he became a candidate for the Methodist ministry, in 1904, and served a three-year probation before entering Victoria College of the University of Toronto. He studied psychology and theology, receiving his BA in 1911 and his Bachelor of Divinity in 1913.