Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
Loading
GW![]()
author
George Woodcock
George Woodcock (May 8, 1912 - January 28, 1995) was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet...view moreGeorge Woodcock (May 8, 1912 - January 28, 1995) was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet and published several volumes of travel writing. In 1959 he was the founding editor of the journal Canadian Literature, the first academic journal specifically dedicated to Canadian writing. He is most commonly known outside Canada for his book Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (1962).
Woodcock was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but moved with his parents to England at an early age, attending Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School in Marlow and Morley College. His first job as a clerk at the Great Western Railway first piqued his interest in anarchism, and he was to remain an anarchist for the rest of his life, writing several books on the subject, as well as biographies of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Oscar Wilde and Peter Kropotkin. His first published work was The White Island (1940), a collection of poetry.
He spent World War II working as a conscientious objector on a farm in Essex, and in 1949, moved to British Columbia. At Camp Angel in Oregon, a camp for conscientious objectors, he was a founder of the Untide Press, which sought to bring poetry to the public in an inexpensive but attractive format. Following the war, he returned to Canada, settling in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1955, he took a post in the English department of the University of British Columbia, where he remained until the 1970s.
Towards the end of his life, Woodcock became increasingly interested in what he saw as the plight of Tibetans. He travelled to India, studied Buddhism, became friends with the Dalai Lama and established the Tibetan Refugee Aid Society. With his wife Inge, he established Canada India Village Aid, which sponsors self-help projects in rural India.
Woodcock died at in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1995, aged 82.view less