Al Purdy's – Al Purdy's Ontario (LP used Canada 1971...spoken word by Canadian poet Al Purdy NM-/VG+)
| Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – T-56899 |
Al Purdy was born in Wooler, Ontario in 1918. He best known, along with Milton Acorn, Alden Nowlan, and Patrick Lane, as a "working class" or "poet of the people" writer. In his teens he road the rails and later spent six years in the RCAF. After several years as a labourer in British Columbia and Ontario, Purdy started earning his living as a writer in the early 1960's. A restless traveller, Purdy is well-known internationally, not only as a poet, but also as a TV and radio play writer, anthologist, editor, travel writer and book reviewer. Purdy won the Governor General's Literary Award in the poetry category in 1965 with The Cariboo Horses and again in 1986 with Collected Poems, 1956-1986. In regard to his status as a "working class" poet, he won the 1987 Peoples' Poet Award (in memory of Milton Acorn) for Collected Poems and received the Order of Canada in 1982.
