John Reade

John Reade (November 13, 1837 – March 26, 1919) was an Irish-born Canadian journalist, essayist, and poet once considered "the grand old man of Canadian letters." He is best known as the literary editor of the Montreal Gazette, a position he held for almost 50 years.

Life John Reade was born in Ballyshannon, Donegal, Ireland, in 1837, the son of Frances Smyth and Joseph Reade. He was educated at Portora School, Enniskillen, and Queen's College, Belfast.

Eight of Reade's poems were published in the 1864 anthology, Selections from Canadian Poets. His own book, Merlin's Prophecy and Other Poems (a book "steeped in Victorian Romanticism"), appeared in 1870.

Recognition Reade's papers are at the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal. Reade was appointed a charter Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1882, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature of Great Britain in 1896.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa in 1909. George Murray, Poems.. Montreal: E.G. O'Connor, 1912.

Fonds Reade's papers are at the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal.

Except where noted, bibliographic information courtesy Dictionary of Canadian Biography.