Wilfred Watson

Wilfred Watson (May 1, 1911 – March 25, 1998) was professor emeritus of English at Canada's University of Alberta for many years. He was also an experimental Canadian poet and dramatist, whose innovative plays had a considerable influence in the 1960s. The Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) says that "Watson ushered in an avant-garde in Canadian theater years before the rear guard had fully emerged."

On graduating, Watson enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy for the balance of World War II.

Wilfred Watson began his academic career in 1949 as a lecturer in English at the University of British Columbia. He taught at the University of Alberta in Calgary from 1951 to 1953. In 1954 he transferred to the Edmonton campus, where he remained as professor of English until retiring in 1977.

Other members of the Watsons' intellectual circle were actor-directors Gordon Peacock and Thomas Peacocke, both associated with the University of Alberta's Studio Theatre. The Studio Theatre became an important venue for the production of Wilfred Watson's plays, beginning with Cockcrow and the Gulls (which he'd written in the mid-1950s) in March 1962.

In his second book, The Sorrowful Canadians and Other Poems, published in 1972, Watson experimented with using repetitions and different typefaces. The Sorrowful Canadians and Other Poems. Edmonton: White Pelican, 1972. I Begin with Counting. Edmonton: NeWest, 1978. Mass on Cowback 1982. Poems: Collected, Unpublished, New. Thomas Peacocke intr. Edmonton: NeWEst, 1986.

Fiction The Baie Comeau Angel and Other Stories. Edmonton: NeWest, 1993.

Non-fiction Marshall McLuhan & Wilfred Watson. From Cliché to Archetype, 1970.

Fonds Wilfred Watson's papers are located in the University of Alberta archives.

Except where noted, bibliographic information courtesy The Canadian Encyclopedia.