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Great Canadian author Robertson Davies was born on this day in 1913

One of Canada’s great writers, Robertson Davies, was born August 28, 1913 in Thamesville, Ontario.

Governor General’s Literary Award winning author, and founding master of Massey College at the University of Toronto.

Davies was internationally honored as one of the most distinguished novelists of his time. He helped develop Canadian theater, was a journalist and social and literary critic, and contributed to Canadian higher education.

Davies’ many essays and published lectures are marked by clarity and lucidity, as well as by intellectual range and depth. With The Deptford Trilogy, he broke new ground in the use of fiction to reveal the mythic and spiritual basis of everyday events. As professor and first master of Massey College, he made an important contribution to Canadian higher education.
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/robertson-davies

Robertson Davies

Robertson Davies, 1913-1995
Issued by Canada in 2013
Designer: Steven Slipp using a 1956 photograph by Yousuf Karsh  

“He is a civilized man, a scintillating conversationalist with a gift of combining erudition and earthly humour.”
Karsh

The booklet cover for this stamp was outstanding. Designer Slipp took a minimalist approach to his design and let Karsh’s portrait become the focus. Well done cover.

Robertson Davies booklet cover showing famous Karsh photo portrait

Born and raised in Ontario, Davies was educated at Upper Canada College, Queen’s University at Kingston and Balliol College, Oxford. During his time in Kingston, he cultivated his interest in journalism as an active contributor to The Journal, the Queen’s University student newspaper. Robertson Davies had three successive careers: as an actor with the Old Vic Company in England; as publisher of the Peterborough Examiner; and as a university professor and founding Master of Massey College at the University of Toronto. As a novelist, he gained worldwide fame for The Salterton Trilogy, The Deptford Trilogy, The Cornish Trilogy, Murther & Walking Spirits and The Cunning Man.
https://library.queensu.ca/about/featured-collections/robertson-davies-collection

More literature and art from the past: 

Umberto Giordano born 1867

Artist Fritz Wotruba 1907 – 1975 dies