Dudek, Louis 1918-2001
DUDEK, Louis 1918-2001
OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born February 6, 1918, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; died of heart failure March 22, 2001, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Educator and author. Dudek was a Canadian modernist poet who was also a cofounder of Contact Press. A graduate of McGill University, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1939, he also earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1951. His teaching career began at City College (now of the City University of New York) where he was an English instructor from 1946 to 1951. He then returned to his alma mater, joining the faculty as an assistant professor, becoming a full professor in 1969, and being named Greenshields Professor of English in 1972; he retired in 1984. While at McGill, Dudek accomplished a great deal to help up-and-coming poets, including publishing their verses in his literary magazine, Delta, and founding Contact Press with fellow poets Raymond Souster and Irving Layton. The publishing company was considered a leader in Canadian poetry publishing during the 1950s and 1960s. Dudek was also the editor of the "McGill Poetry Series," beginning in 1951, which helped poets such as Leonard Cohen get their start. As for his own writing, Dudek wrote over a dozen poetry collections, published several literary studies, and edited a number of books as well. His verse collections include East of the City (1946); The Transparent Sea (1956); Atlantis (1967), which was later published as Poems from Atlantis (1980); Continuation I (1981); Zembla's Rocks (1986); Continuation II (1990); Small Perfect Things (1991); A Last Stand (1995); The Caged Tiger (1997); and The Poetry of Louis Dudek: Definitive Edition (1998). His many nonfiction works include Notebooks, 1960-1994 (1994), The Birth of Reason (1994), 1941 (1996), and Reality Games (1998).
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
BOOKS
Contemporary Poets, seventh edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2001.
Writers Directory, 18th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2003.
PERIODICALS
Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), March 22, 2001; May 2, 2001.
Maclean's, April 2, 2001, p. 18.