Elizabeth Smart

Elizabeth Smart (December 27, 1913 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian poet and novelist. Her best-known work is the novel By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, an extended prose poem inspired by her romance with the poet George Barker.

Early life and education Smart was born to a prominent family in Ottawa, Ontario; her father, Russel Smart, was a lawyer, and the family had a summer house on Kingsmere Lake located next door to the future Prime Minister of Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Her sister, Jane became a filmmaker, teacher and sculptor.

Smart attended the Ottawa Normal School in her formative years, but was soon transferred to the Elmwood School, a private prep school for girls located in an affluent Ottawa neighbourhood. She later attended Hatfield Hall in Cobourg, Ontario for secondary school.

At the age of 11, Smart was confined to bed for a year due to a misdiagnosed "leaky heart valve". In her youth, she often kept regular journals, a habit she would keep up throughout most of her life.

Elizabeth Smart at her family's summer cottage near Kingsmere, c. 1930At the age of 18, following graduation from secondary school, Smart traveled to England to study music at the University of London. Two years later, in 1943, during the height of the war, she sailed to the United Kingdom to join Barker. There she gave birth to their second child, Christopher Barker, and obtained employment at the British Ministry of Defence to support her children.

Smart's mother Louise ("Louie") was not pleased with the book. Again availing influence with government officials, she led a successful campaign to have its publication banned in Canada. Of those copies that made their way into the country from overseas, Louise Smart bought up as many as she could find and had them burned.

Barker visited Smart often in London where she worked. She became pregnant again, and was fired from the Ministry of Information. Their affair produced two more children (Sebastian, born 1945, and Rose Emma, born 1947). Through it all Barker, who was Catholic, said he would leave his wife for Smart, but this never happened (he was to have fifteen children by several different women). They lived a bohemian lifestyle and associated with many of the 'Soho' artists. Christopher Barker writing in The Guardian about this period noted: "On many occasions through the early Sixties, writers and painters such as David Gascoyne, Paddy Kavanagh, Roberts MacBryde and Colquhoun and Paddy Swift [Swift lived downstairs from Smart and his wife, Agnes, wrote cookbooks with Smart] would gather at Westbourne Terrace in Paddington, our family home at that time. They came for editorial discussions about their poetry magazine, X."

In addition to the unconventional nature of the relationship, the affair was fraught with turmoil. Barker was a heavy drinker and Smart took up the habit, which intensified when the two were together. The couple were involved in numerous fights; during one argument, Smart bit off part of Barker's upper lip. Nonetheless, as evidenced from writings in her journals, Smart's love for Barker continued for the remainder of her life.

Single mother and writer Raising four children on her own, Smart worked for 13 years as an advertising copywriter, becoming the highest-paid copywriter in England. She joined the staff of Queen magazine in 1963, later becoming an editor.

Influence Morrissey, former lead singer of the British band the Smiths, has talked of his love for Elizabeth Smart. References to By Grand Station Central I Sat Down And Wept are found in a number of Smiths songs, in particular "What She Said", "Reel Around The Fountain" and "Well, I Wonder", and as well, the title of the Smiths compilation album Louder Than Bombs.

Ian Brown used a passage from Elizabeth's poem A Musical Note to name his third solo album The Music of the Spheres.

Canadian playwright Wendy Lill wrote a play entitled Memories of You (1989) about the life of Elizabeth Smart.

Works Smart, Elizabeth. By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. New York: Vintage Press, 1992, First edition 1945. . Smart, Elizabeth and Agnes Ryan. Cooking the French Way (%00 Recipes). London: Littlehampton Book Services Ltd., 1966, first edition 1958. . Smart, Elizabeth. A Bonus. London: Jay Landesman Publishing, 1977. . Smart, Elizabeth. The Assumption of the Rogues and Rascals. New York: HarperCollins, 1978. . Smart, Elizabeth. Ten Poems. Bath, UK: Bath Place Community Arts Press, 1981. Smart, Elizabeth. Eleven Poems. Bath, UK: Bath Place Community Arts Press, 1982. Smart, Elizabeth. In the Meantime. Ottawa: Deneau, 1984. . Smart, Elizabeth. Elizabeth's Garden: Elizabeth Smart on the Art of Gardening. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1989. . Smart, Elizabeth.The Collected Poems of Elizabeth Smart. London: Paladin, 1992. .

Edited collections Smart, Elizabeth, Christina Burridge ed. Autobiographies. Vancouver: William Hoffer, 1987. Smart, Elizabeth, Alice Van Wart, ed. Juvenilia: Early Writings of Elizabeth Smart. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1987. . Smart, Elizabeth, Alice Van Wart, ed. Necessary Secrets: The Journals of Elizabeth Smart. Toronto: Harper/Collins Canada, 1987. . Smart, Elizabeth, Alice Van Wart, ed. On the Side of the Angels: The Second Volume of the Journals of Elizabeth Smart. Toronto: Harper/Collins Canada, 1997. .