William Prouty

1932-2018

William Prouty (author, poet, editor, teacher) was born in Bondville, Quebec on 24 November 1932 and attended Knowlton Academy. Prouty pursued post-secondary studies at Bishop’s University; he then went to the University of New Brunswick. After attaining his BA and MA degrees, he attended Oxford University. That was followed by terms at the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Summer School and San Francisco State University. Prouty spent most of his career teaching literature. He taught at McGill University from 1958-1961 and then Addis Ababa University College Haile Selassie from 1961-1966. In 1967 he moved to the Rothesay Collegiate School in Saint John and then to the University of New Brunswick Saint John for the rest of his career. He retired from UNBSJ in 1998. Prouty published several collections of poetry and literary miscellany, including The Locke of Grasse (1969), The Non-Alternative Nightmare (1970), Hitch-Hiker to Eternity (1971), A Past of One’s Own (1980), Numbered Dimensions (1987), and Crocodile Hoy! Adventures in Ethiopia (2012). He was president of the New Brunswick Writers’ Federation and founder of the Purple Wednesday Society, a locus for literary events,and discussion in Saint John. In 1985 Prouty received an Award of Merit from the Association of Canadian Studies for his contributions to Canadian literature. In the 1980s the Purple Wednesday Society became co-publisher of The Cormorant, a Saint John literary periodical. Upon retirement, Prouty returned to his home of Bondville, Quebec where he continued to write and teach. He died in 2018.

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Saint John