Eli Mandel
Encyclopedia
Eli Mandel was a Canadian poet
, editor of many Canadian anthologies, and literary academic.
He was born Elias Wolf Mandel in Estevan, Saskatchewan
, Canada
to Russian
Jewish parents who had emigrated from the Ukraine
, and grew up the Canadian prairies
during the Great Depression
. After a job working for a pharmacist who, landed him a position serving in Canada's Medical Corps during World War II
, it has been said Mandel returned a forever emotionally distraught man who was destined to live the rest of his life without a sense of belonging. This helps explain the alienation that is illustrated throughout his writings.
He studied English
at the University of Saskatchewan
attaining a Master of Arts
degree in 1950. His further studies at the University of Toronto
earned him a PhD
in 1957.
Mandel taught English and creative writing
at the University of Alberta
, University of Victoria
, University of Toronto, and York University
.
Besides his poetry, he wrote other works such as his 1969 essay on fellow poet Irving Layton
.
He was married to his first wife, Miriam Mandel
for 18 years. The couple had two children, Evie and Charles. In 1967 he divorced her and married Ann Hardy; they had one child, Sara.
Publishing poetry in the early 1950s, Eli Mandel’s first significant collection was entitled Minotaur poems (1954), and it appeared in the contact press anthology Trio (1954).
His poetry was published in 1954 in Trio, an anthology of poems by Mandel, Gael Turnbull
, and Phyllis Webb
published by Raymond Souster
's Contact Press.
His first book was Fuseli poems (1960).
His works seem to have been deeply influenced by World War II
, especially all the horrors of the Jewish concentration camps. Despite the lack of direct references to the war until Stony Plain (1973), his work illustrates many grim and morbid images of despair, destruction written with a tone of inescapable pessimism.
Mandel’s style was contemplative and intellectual - "an ironic poet, rather than an angry one".
He deliberately lacks emotion in his work, which heightens his desired hopeless outlook.
This is a central feature in all of his collected works. Being exceptionally literarily complex, his early works appear not to have been written for "a scholarly rather than public audience". However, later, starting with the poetry of Black and secret man (1964), Mandel simplifies the syntax
and uses more colloquial language. While the thoughtful view remained as it was in his earlier work, a wittier tone replaced the previously somber one.
Mandel, also being an active critic
and editor
, published a monograph
on his fellow-poet Irving Layton
and in his first anthology
, Poetry62/Poésie62(1962) which he co-edited with Jean-Guy Pilon
, he also brought to attention many otherwise unnoticed newcomers of the 1950s such as Al Purdy
, Milton Acorn
, D.G. Jones and Alden Nowlan
.
and Northrop Frye
’s The Great Code. Both excerpts exemplify Mandel’s questioning of whatever is viewed as orthodoxy
. He refuses to let pass what most people simply accept. In this essay collection, it has been recognized that the first piece, Auschwitz and Poetry, is the most powerful and significant and the last of this series of essays, The Border League: American ‘West’ and Canadian ‘Region’, seems to be the least successful.
The compilation of Mandel’s work, The Other Harmony: the Collected Poetry of Eli Mandel, is a two volume collection where the first includes works such as Mandel’s contributions to Trio, His Fuseli Poems, An Idiot Joy, Stony Plain, and many others. It has been acknowledged as the more noteworthy of the two volumes in terms of its primary
material.
for An Idiot Joy.
In 1982 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
.
In 1989 he was made an honorary Doctor of Letters
by York University. York University Honorary Degree Recipients, Web.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, editor of many Canadian anthologies, and literary academic.
Biography
Ten years prior to his death, Eli Mandel’s passing would have been significant news; however, because of a series of strokes that left him unable to write, Mandel had long since gone unrecognized.He was born Elias Wolf Mandel in Estevan, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
Jewish parents who had emigrated from the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, and grew up the Canadian prairies
Canadian Prairies
The Canadian Prairies is a region of Canada, specifically in western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces or simply the Prairies comprise the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as they are largely covered...
during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. After a job working for a pharmacist who, landed him a position serving in Canada's Medical Corps during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, it has been said Mandel returned a forever emotionally distraught man who was destined to live the rest of his life without a sense of belonging. This helps explain the alienation that is illustrated throughout his writings.
He studied English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
at the University of Saskatchewan
University of Saskatchewan
The University of Saskatchewan is a Canadian public research university, founded in 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. An "Act to establish and incorporate a University for the Province of Saskatchewan" was passed by the...
attaining a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree in 1950. His further studies at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
earned him a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in 1957.
Mandel taught English and creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
at the University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
, University of Victoria
University of Victoria
The University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...
, University of Toronto, and York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
.
Besides his poetry, he wrote other works such as his 1969 essay on fellow poet Irving Layton
Irving Layton
Irving Peter Layton, OC was a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following but also made enemies. As T...
.
He was married to his first wife, Miriam Mandel
Miriam Mandel
Miriam Mandel was a Canadian poet who won Canada's Governor General's Award.-Life:Miriam Mandel was born in Rockglen, Saskatchewan....
for 18 years. The couple had two children, Evie and Charles. In 1967 he divorced her and married Ann Hardy; they had one child, Sara.
Publishing poetry in the early 1950s, Eli Mandel’s first significant collection was entitled Minotaur poems (1954), and it appeared in the contact press anthology Trio (1954).
His poetry was published in 1954 in Trio, an anthology of poems by Mandel, Gael Turnbull
Gael Turnbull
Gael Turnbull was a Scottish poet who was an important precursor of the British Poetry Revival.Turnbull was born in Edinburgh and grew up in the North of England and in Canada...
, and Phyllis Webb
Phyllis Webb
Phyllis Webb, is a Canadian poet and radio broadcaster. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes her as "a writer of stature in Canadian letters", and calls her work "brilliantly crafted, formal in its energies and humane in its concern"....
published by Raymond Souster
Raymond Souster
Raymond Holmes Souster, OC is a Canadian poet whose writing career spans almost 70 years. He has published more than 50 volumes of his own verse, and edited or co-edited a dozen volumes of others' poetry...
's Contact Press.
His first book was Fuseli poems (1960).
His works seem to have been deeply influenced by World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, especially all the horrors of the Jewish concentration camps. Despite the lack of direct references to the war until Stony Plain (1973), his work illustrates many grim and morbid images of despair, destruction written with a tone of inescapable pessimism.
Mandel’s style was contemplative and intellectual - "an ironic poet, rather than an angry one".
He deliberately lacks emotion in his work, which heightens his desired hopeless outlook.
This is a central feature in all of his collected works. Being exceptionally literarily complex, his early works appear not to have been written for "a scholarly rather than public audience". However, later, starting with the poetry of Black and secret man (1964), Mandel simplifies the syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
and uses more colloquial language. While the thoughtful view remained as it was in his earlier work, a wittier tone replaced the previously somber one.
Mandel, also being an active critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
and editor
Editor
The term editor may refer to:As a person who does editing:* Editor in chief, having final responsibility for a publication's operations and policies* Copy editing, making formatting changes and other improvements to text...
, published a monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
on his fellow-poet Irving Layton
Irving Layton
Irving Peter Layton, OC was a Romanian-born Canadian poet. He was known for his "tell it like it is" style which won him a wide following but also made enemies. As T...
and in his first anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
, Poetry62/Poésie62(1962) which he co-edited with Jean-Guy Pilon
Jean-Guy Pilon
Jean-Guy Pilon, OC, CQ, FRSC is a Quebec poet.Born in Saint-Polycarpe, Quebec, he received a law degree from the Université de Montréal in 1954.-Honours:* In 1967, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada....
, he also brought to attention many otherwise unnoticed newcomers of the 1950s such as Al Purdy
Al Purdy
Alfred Wellington Purdy, OC, O.Ont was one of the most popular and important Canadian poets of the 20th century. Purdy's writing career spanned more than fifty years. His works include over thirty books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four books of correspondence...
, Milton Acorn
Milton Acorn
Milton James Rhode Acorn , nicknamed The People's Poet by his peers, was a Canadian poet, writer, and playwright. He was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island....
, D.G. Jones and Alden Nowlan
Alden Nowlan
Alden Albert Nowlan was a critically acclaimed Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright-History:Alden Nowlan was born into rural poverty in Stanley, Nova Scotia, adjacent to Mosherville, and close to the small town of Windsor, Nova Scotia, along a stretch of dirt road that he would later refer to...
.
Critical Reception
Eli Mandel’s book, The Family Romance (1986), has been characterized by his quotations from essays on Hugh MacLennanHugh MacLennan
John Hugh MacLennan, CC, CQ was a Canadian author and professor of English at McGill University. He won five Governor General's Awards and a Royal Bank Award.-Family and childhood:...
and Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....
’s The Great Code. Both excerpts exemplify Mandel’s questioning of whatever is viewed as orthodoxy
Orthodoxy
The word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...
. He refuses to let pass what most people simply accept. In this essay collection, it has been recognized that the first piece, Auschwitz and Poetry, is the most powerful and significant and the last of this series of essays, The Border League: American ‘West’ and Canadian ‘Region’, seems to be the least successful.
The compilation of Mandel’s work, The Other Harmony: the Collected Poetry of Eli Mandel, is a two volume collection where the first includes works such as Mandel’s contributions to Trio, His Fuseli Poems, An Idiot Joy, Stony Plain, and many others. It has been acknowledged as the more noteworthy of the two volumes in terms of its primary
Primary
The word Primary when used alone may refer to any of the following:* Primary , the larger of two co-orbiting bodies* Primary is used for the name of the primary mirror in a telescope.* Primary , from Australia...
material.
Recognition
Mandel won the 1968 Governor General's Award1968 Governor General's Awards
Each winner of the 1968 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts...
for An Idiot Joy.
In 1982 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
.
In 1989 he was made an honorary Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
by York University. York University Honorary Degree Recipients, Web.
Poetry
- 1954: Trio: First Poems by Gael Turnbull, Phyllis Webb, and Eli Mandel. Toronto: Contact Press, 1954.
- 1960: Fuseli Poems
- Black and Secret Man. (Toronto: Ryerson, 1964)
- 1967: An Idiot Joy (Hurtig)
- Crusoe: Poems Selected and New (Toronto: Anansi, 1973)
- 1973: Stony Plain (Porcepic) ISBN 0-88878-010-9
- 1977: Out Of Place (Porcepic) ISBN 0-88878-074-5
- 1981: Life Sentence: Poems and Journals: 1976-1980
- 2000: The Other Harmony: The Collected Poetry of Eli Mandel, compilation (Canadian Plains Research Centre) ISBN 0-88977-138-3
Criticism
- 1966: Criticism: The Silent-Speaking Words, Eight Talks for CBC Radio (CBC Publications)
- 1969: Irving Layton (Forum House), edited by William FrenchWilliam FrenchWilliam French may refer to:* William H. French , Union general in the American Civil War* Percy French , full name William Percy French, Irish entertainer and artist*William French...
- 1977: Another Time (Porcepic) ISBN 0-88878-077-X
- 1986: The Family Romance (Turnstone) ISBN 0-88801-103-2
Other Works
- 1981: Dreaming Backwards, compilation of revisions from 1954-1981 (General) ISBN 0-7736-1091-X
Edited
- Poets of Contemporary Canada, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart (New Canadian Library).
Discography
- 2001: Celebration: Famous Canadian Poets CD Canadian Poetry AssociationCanadian Poetry AssociationThe Canadian Poetry Association began as a grass-roots organization dedicated to promoting the reading, writing, publishing and preservation of poetry in Canada through the individual efforts of members; promoting communication among poets, publishers and the general public; encouraging leadership...
— ISBN 1-55253-031-0 (CD#2) (with Dorothy LivesayDorothy LivesayDorothy Kathleen May Livesay, was a Canadian poet who twice won the Governor General`s Award in the 1940s, and was "senior woman writer in Canada" during the 1970s and 1980s.-Life:...
)
External links
- OneZeroZero: Eli Mandel, accessed 10 July 2006
- Sask 2005: Eli Mandel profile, accessed 10 July 2006
- University of Manitoba collections: Eli Mandel fonds summary, accessed 10 July 2006
- The Canadian Encyclopedia: Eli Mandel, accessed 10 July 2006
- "A Little More on Dr. Eli Mandel's Greatness