Wilson MacDonald

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wilson Pugsley MacDonald (May 5, 1880-April 8, 1967) was a popular Canadian poet. He was born in Cheapside, Ontario.

MacDonald, like George Moore before him, or A. Edward Newton, was an author whose books are seldom found unsigned. He very correctly understood that the fine art of self-promotion and the cult of personality would sell his books even if the poems themselves were second-rate. Thus, he made a career of travelling from town to town giving readings and signing books.

His verse, often doggerel in French Canadian dialect, would have been more entertaining fare if heard rather than read. For the modern reader there are bits and pieces of his work that stand the test of time. The title poem of his collection "Out of the Wilderness" has something of the strength of Walt Whitman - "I, a vagabond, gypsy, lover forever of freedom,/ Come to you who are arrogant, proud, and fevered with civilization - / Come with a tonic of sunlight, bottled in wild careless acres,/ To cure you with secrets as old as the breathing of men.