William Arthur Deacon

William Arthur Deacon (6 April 1890 — 5 August 1977) was a Canadian barrister-at-law, literary critic and editor, widely known throughout Canada and the United States, Deacon was a founding member of the Canadian Authors Association, serving as its national president in 1946–1948.

Early life and education Deacon was born in Pembroke, Ontario on 6 April 1890. His parents were William Henry Deacon and Sarah Annie (Davies).

In 1917, moving to Winnipeg, Manitoba,

Career Deacon worked as a barrister-at-law during the first ten years of his career,

Deacon began writing about books, around 1920, with the publication of articles in The New York Times Book Review and the Literary Review of the New York Evening Post. After a year on the contributing staff of the Manitoba Free Press, he was appointed Editor of The Saturday Evening Citizen, for whom he wrote weekly articles and book reviews. He worked for the Winnipeg Free Press (1921), Saturday Night (1922–1928), The Mail and Empire (1928–1936) and The Globe and Mail (1936–1961).

Deacon also found time for occasional contributions to the London Bookman, The American Mercury, the International Book Review, Yearbook of the Arts in Canada (1928-29; 1933-34), Canadian Portraits (1940); Some Canadian Essays (1932); Book of Canadian Humor (1951). Deacon retired from the Globe and Mail when he was seventy. The Waterloo Region Record described him as "for 40 years an intellectual patron and prophet in Canadian writing". The Brantford Expositor, speaking editorially, wrote: "Mr. Deacon has no peer in Canada as a critical book reviewer of understanding." Deacon's articles on the latest books appeared each Saturday in The Whig-Standard.

Personal life In 1911, he firstly married Gladys Coon of Weston, Ontario. They divorced. About 1923, he secondly married the writer and theosophist, Mrs. Sally Townsend Syme.

Death and legacy William Arthur Deacon died on 5 August 1977 in Toronto.

His biographer, Jessie L. Beattie, published William Arthur Deacon, Memoirs of a Literary Friendship in 1978 (The Fleming Press, Hamilton, Ontario).

Selected works Pens and Pirates (1923) Peter McArthur (1923) Poteen and Other Essays (1926) The Four Jameses (1927) My vision of Canada (1933) Open House (1931)

Pamphlets "Sh-hh. Here Comes the Censor!" (1940)