Robert Weaver (editor)

Robert Weaver (January 6, 1921 – January 26, 2008) was an influential Canadian editor and broadcaster.

Born in Niagara Falls and educated at the University of Toronto, Weaver served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. From 1948 to 1985, Robert Weaver worked at the CBC where he created a series of shows that identified and featured then unknown Canadian writers such as Alice Munro, Mordecai Richler, Timothy Findley, Margaret Atwood, and Leonard Cohen.

In 1956 Weaver founded the Tamarack Review, a Canadian literary magazine, focus of a literary revival which led to Toronto's overhauling Montreal as the literary capital of English Canada; for example, Weaver annually visited Canadian universities where he had literary friends (mostly from the University of Toronto) to encourage undergraduates to publish new poems and stories. Over the course of his career at the CBC, Weaver edited more than a dozen anthologies and initiated the annual CBC Literary Awards in 1979.

In order to maintain his direct contact with writers, Weaver turned down his promotions at the CBC. He declined appointment to the Order of Canada, stating he was critical of the "three-tier" nature of the award.

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