Bliss Carman

William Bliss Carman (1861–1929) was an editor, essayist and poet. He was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, the son of William Carman and Sophia Mary Bliss. He died in New Canaan, Connecticut.

He went to Collegiate Grammar School in Fredericton with his cousin Charles G.D. Roberts. He graduated from the University of New Brunswick in 1881 after which he attended Edinburgh University in Scotland for two years. In 1883, he returned to Fredericton where he taught at Collegiate Grammar School and read law, receiving an M.A. in 1884. From 1886 to 1888, he did post graduate work in history and philosophy at Harvard. Subsequently, he was employed on the editorial staffs of various literary publications in New York, Chicago and Boston, including The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, Current Literature, The Chapbook, The Independent, Literary World, and The Outlook.

In 1896, Carman met Dr. Morris Lee King and his wife, Mary Perry King. He collaborated with Mrs. King on The Making of Personality (1908) and on several other books, brochures, masques and interpretive dances. In 1908, he met Madeleine Galbraith at a reception following her appearance in a play at Hart House, University of Toronto. She later lived in New York, studied acting and toured with several companies. The same year, Carman moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, near the King’s estate, where he devoted the later years of his life solely to writing poetry.

In 1925, Carman was made Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1906 he was awarded an LL.D. by the University of New Brunswick, and in 1928 he received the Lorne Pierce Gold Medal from the Royal Society of Canada. Posthumously, he received a medal from the Poetry Society of America.

Some of Carman’s publications include poetry collections: Low Tide on Grand Pré: A Book of Lyrics (1893), Behind the Arras: A Book of the Unseen (1894), Songs from Vagabondia (1894–1900), A Seamark: A Threnody for Robert Louis Stevenson (1895), From the Book of Myths (1902), The Pipes of Pan (1902–1905), The Green Book of the Bards (1903), Songs of the Sea Children (1904), Collected Poems: In Two Volumes (1904), The World’s Best Poetry (1904), Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics (1905), Echoes from Vagabondia (1912), Daughters of Dawn: A Lyrical Pageant or Series of Historic Scenes for Presentation with Music and Dancing (1913), Earth Deities and Other Masques (1914), Later Poems (1922), Wild Garden (1929), The Music of Earth (1931). Essays and other works of non-fiction: The Kinship of Nature (1903), The Poetry of Life (1904), The Making of Personality (1908), Talks on Poetry and Life (1926), The Oxford Book of American Verse (1927).

Source: Gundy, H.P. “Carman, Bliss.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Ed. James H. Marsh. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1988. 365.

The custodial history of the material acquired from F.H. Galbraith and William Onions is unknown. The typewritten manuscript acquired from Ann Ballard was presented to her grandfather, D’Alton Coleman, vice president of CPR Western Lines by the Hon. W.C. Nichol, Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia in 1922. How it came to be in his possession is unknown.