Edward McCourt

Edward Alexander McCourt (October 10, 1907 – January 6, 1972) was a Canadian writer.[1]

Edward McCourt
Born	Edward Alexander McCourt October 10, 1907 Mullingar, Ireland
Died	January 6, 1972
Occupation	novelist, short story writer
Nationality	Canadian
Period	1940s-1970s

Born in Mullingar, Ireland, McCourt's family emigrated to Kitscoty, Alberta when he was two years old.[1] He was educated at the University of Alberta, becoming a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford,[2] and earned an MA from Oxford University.[1] Returning to Canada, he worked at Upper Canada College, Queen's University and the University of New Brunswick before joining the faculty of the University of Saskatchewan in 1944.[1]

McCourt published five novels—Music at the Close (1947), Home Is the Stranger (1950), The Wooden Sword (1956), Walk Through the Valley (1958) and Fasting Friar (1963).[3] His non-fiction titles included The Canadian West in Fiction (1949), a critical analysis of regional literature from the Canadian Prairies, Revolt in the West (1958), about the North-West Rebellion, and Remembering Butler (1967), a biography of Sir William Butler, as well as works of travel writing.[1]

Music at the Close won the Ryerson Fiction Award in 1947, and was republished by the New Canadian Library in 1972.[3]

McCourt died on January 6, 1972.[1]

References

1. "McCourt, Edward (1907 – 72)". Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan.
2. Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900–1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 235.
3. Winnifred M. Bogaards, "Edward McCourt: A Reassessment". Studies in Canadian Literature, Volume 05, Number 2 (1980).

• Theme and form in the novels of Edward A. McCourt, by Neil Graham, Thesis M. A., University of Windsor, 1968 (with a bibliography)