The Governor General's Literary Awards

In 1937, Lord Tweedsmuir--also known as John Buchan, of The 39 Steps--awarded the first Governor General's Literary Awards. In their fifty-eight-year history, the prizes have evolved into Canada's premier literary awards. Launched by the Canadian Authors Association and administered by the CAA until 1971, the awards were at first nonmonetary prizes, and were awarded for the best works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama written in English or translated from French into English.

Under CAA sponsorship, several changes were made in the award categories. In 1942 the drama category was dropped, and nonfiction was split into creative writing and academic writing. In 1949 an award for 'juvenile' books was added, to be dropped again in 1959.

The Canada Council assumed sponsorship of the awards in 1959, and at the same time added prizes for works written in French. Since 1981, eight separate prizes have been given for the best works in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, four for English-language works and four for French. In 1987, the Canada Council Prizes for Children's Literature (text and illustration) and Translation were made Governor General's Literary Awards.

The prestige of the prizes was complemented by a small cash award of $250 in 1951. In 1966 the value of each prize was increased to $2,50O, in 1975 to $5,000, and in 1989 to $10,000. Each winner also receives a copy of his or her award-winning book specially bound by Pierre Ouvrard, master bookbinder, of Saint\-Paul-de-l'lle-aux-Noix, Quebec.

In 1980, to give more publicity to the awards and the work of Canadian writers, the Canada Council began to publish the names of the finalists about a month before announcing the names of the winners. In 1990, as part of an ongoing effort to support the book publishing and bookselling industries, the Council made substantial changes to the submission procedures, promotional materials and timing of the finalists' announcement and presentation ceremony. With the 1993 Awards, the Council moved the date of the ceremony to November to take full advantage of the peak book-buying season. Each year, the location of the ceremony alternates between Toronto and Montreal.

Earle Birney won the Governor General's Literary Award twice, in 1942 and 1945.

In 1942, "David and Other Poems" was his winning work. G. Herbert Sallans with "Little Man", Bruce Hutchison with "The Unknown Country", and Edgar McInnes with "The Unguarded Frontier" also won the award that year.

In 1945, Birney won with "Now is Time". Hugh MacLennan with "The Solitudes", Evelyn M. Richardson with "We Keep a Light", and Ross Munro with "Gauntlet to Overlord" were the other winners of the award that year.

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©Copyright 1996

RH - DATE Saturday, March 23, 1996