Pratt, Edwin John Dove

Person

Pratt, Edwin John Dove

4 Feb. 1882-26 Apr. 1964

E. J. Pratt was born in Western Bay, Newfoundland on 4 February 1882. He graduated from St. John's Methodist College in 1901, and obtained his BA in Psychology and Theology (1911) and Bachelor of Divinity (1913) from Victoria College at the University of Toronto. After serving as Assistant Minister in Streetsville, Ontario, he returned to the University of Toronto as a Lecturer in Psychology, and obtained his PhD in 1917. He married Viola Whitney in 1918, and had one daughter, Claire Pratt.
Pratt was invited by Pelham Edgar in 1920 to switch to the University's Faculty of English, where he became a professor in 1930 and a Senior Professor in 1938. He taught English literature at Victoria College until his retirement in 1953. He served as Literary Adviser to the college literary journal, Acta Victoriana.
Pratt won Canada's top poetry prize, the Governor General's Award, three times: in 1937 for "The Fable of the Goats and other Poems;" in 1940 for "Brébeuf and his Brethren;" and in 1952, for "Towards the Last Spike." He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1930, and was awarded the Society's Lorne Pierce Medal in 1940. In 1946, he was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George by King George VI. He was also awarded a Canada Council Medal for distinction in literature in 1961.
Pratt passed away on 26 April 1964 in Toronto at the age of 82.

Draft

• English