Goodridge MacDonald

1897-1967

Cuthbert Goodridge MacDonald (poet, freelance writer, journalist, and editor) was born in Fredericton 10 May 1897. He died 9 January 1967 in Montreal. During his lifetime, he published several collections of poetry, including Armageddon and Other Poems (1917), Beggar Makes Music (1950), Compass Reading and Others (1955), The Dying General and Other Poems (1946), Recent Poems (1957), and Twenty-Four Poems (1958). A collection of his work, Selected Poems, was published posthumously in 1970. He also had poems published in Delta, Queen’s Quarterly, Canadian Forum, Saturday Night, the Canadian Poetry Magazine, and The Fiddlehead.  Educated in Fredericton schools until 1912, MacDonald moved with his family to Nelson, British Columbia, where he attended Nelson High School. From there he moved to Winnipeg in 1914. In 1915, his parents separated, and his mother moved her sons to Ottawa. In Ottawa, MacDonald worked as a civil servant until 1916 when he enlisted in the war. From 1917 to 1918, he was deployed with the Queen’s Field Ambulance, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).  MacDonald was later an editor of The Montreal Herald.  His poems about war were included in anthologies of Canadian war poetry such as Canadian Poems of the Great War (1918).  After MacDonald’s death in Montreal on 9 January 1967, he was cremated and buried in his family plot in Fredericton. On 10 November 1967, a memorial service arranged by the University of New Brunswick was held in his honour. 

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

https://nble.lib.unb.ca/browse/m/cuthbert-goodridge-macdonald

Archival Material

• Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald family fonds
  ⌄
  Location

  University of New Brunswick Archives & Special Collections

  Website/Catalogue Record

  View Archival Record

  Retrieval Number

  MG L 22

  Date Range of Material

  [ca. 1950], 1967-1968, 1987

  Extent

  Approximately 0.5 cm of textual records

  Scope and Content Note

  Series 2 consists of draft poetry by C. Goodridge MacDonald:  "Ministers of War", "To France-March 1914", "By St. Margaret's Bay", "Compass Reading (for an exhibition)".  Also includes a poem by Barbara MacDonald entitled "The Battle of Litter Lane" (1968).