Miriam Waddington (née Dworkin; 23 December 1917 – 3 March 2004) was a Canadian poet, short story writer and translator. She was part of a Montreal literary circle that included F. R. Scott, Irving Layton and Louis Dudek.

Biography

Miriam Waddington was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she studied English at the University of Toronto (B.A. 1939) and social work at the University of Pennsylvania (M.A.). She worked for many years as a social worker in Montreal, Quebec. She later relocated to the then Toronto suburb of North York, where she worked for North York Family Services. In 1964, she joined the English department at York University. She retired in 1983.

She died in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 3 March 2004 after suffering a stroke in late February. After her death, much of her own works and personal library were donated by her sons to the archives of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. The donation was a significant and appreciated endowment. Her archival fonds is held at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.

Honours

Miriam Waddington was awarded Borestone Mountain Awards for best poetry in 1963, 1966, and 1974.

Her poem "Jacques Cartier in Toronto" is featured on the back of the Canadian $100 bill released in 2004.

Bibliography

Poetry

  • Green World. Montreal: First Statement, 1945.
  • The Second Silence. Toronto: Ryerson, 1955.
  • The Season's Lovers. Toronto: Ryerson, 1958.
  • Four Poems. n.p.: n.p., 196-?
  • The Glass Trumpet. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1966.
  • Flying with Milton. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Unicorn Press, 1969.
  • Say Yes. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1969.
  • Dream Telescope. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1972.
  • Driving Home: Poems New and Selected. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1972.
  • The Price of Gold. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1976.
  • Mister Never. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1978.
  • The Visitants. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1981.
  • Collected Poems. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1986.
  • The Last Landscape. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1992.
  • Canada: Romancing the Land - 1996
  • Advice to the Young

<!-- An example of one of Waddington's poems entitled "Flying With Milton," is as follows, with an excerpt from Keats.

....he flew<br />

With daring Milton through the fields of air<br />

Keats

Flying with Milton through<br />

his fields of air on a dark<br />

November day in Toronto I<br />

dreamed of terraced hillsides<br />

new forest plantings in Jamaica<br />

irrigation schemes in Israel<br />

and free mountains in Africa<br />

I dreamed of storm windows<br />

piled up on racks in suburban<br />

garages of fresh air and peace<br />

and gardens for everyone I<br />

dreamed of violence suspended<br />

from a sonnet string tied to<br />

the apron of April and I hung<br />

on the dangling world a single<br />

bead in a string of beads one<br />

frail point to sink into the centre<br />

where I could turn the spokes<br />

of Milton's eternal wheel to<br />

speaking radiation -->

Fiction

  • Summer at Lonely Beach and Other Stories. Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 1982.

Non-fiction

  • A.M. Klein. Toronto: Copp Clark Publishing, 1970.
  • Folklore in the Poetry of A.M. Klein. St. John's, NF: Memorial University, 1981.
  • Apartment Seven: Essays New and Selected. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Edited

  • Waddington, Miriam, ed. The Collected Poems of A.M. Klein. Toronto: Mc-Graw-Hill Ryerson, 1974.
  • Waddington, Miriam, ed. John Sutherland: Essays, Controversies and Poems. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972.

<small>Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Brock University.</small>

References