John Sutherland

1919-1956

John Max Allen Sutherland was born on 21 February 1919 in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Sutherland would become known as a critic, editor, publisher, and poet, and he was especially influential in founding the modernist magazines First Statement in 1942 and Northern Review in 1945. Sutherland died on 1 September 1956. The Sutherland family lived in Liverpool until 1926.  Later John and his sister Betty lived with their grandparents in Lockeport, Nova Scotia.  In 1930, the Sutherland’s relocated to Saint John, New Brunswick, where Sutherland would attend high school. In 1939 he entered Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario for a Bachelor of Arts degree, but illness forced him to return to New Brunswick.  In 1942 Sutherland began studying English literature at McGill University in Montreal helped found First Statement. In June 1945, First Statement merged with rival magazine Preview to create Northern Review. Sutherland kept Northern Review in publication until his death in 1956. Sutherland also wrote The poetry of E.J. Pratt : a new interpretation (1956).

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Saint John

Archival Material

• John Sutherland fonds
  ⌄
  Location

  University of New Brunswick Archives & Special Collections

  Website/Catalogue Record

  View Archival Record

  Retrieval Number

  MG L 20

  Date Range of Material

  [ca. 1937]

  Extent

  1 p. of textual material

  Scope and Content Note

  One original poem by John Sutherland given to Helen (Baker) Mahoney when he was 18 years of age and fighting tuberculosis in a sanitorium in Saint John, New Brunswick.