George Woodcock (May 8, 1912 - January 28, 1995) was a Canadian writer. He was very prolific, producing poetry, essays, criticism, biographies and historical works. He is probably best known today in Canada for founding the journal Canadian Literature in 1959, the first journal dedicated to Canadian writing, still publishing today; while elsewhere in the world, he is probably best remembered for writing Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements, seen as one of the great overviews of anarchism (first published 1962). May 8 is the 128th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (129th in leap years). ... 1912 is a leap year starting on Monday. ... January 28 is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Though anyone who creates a written work may be called a writer, the term is usually reserved for those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Essay, a short work that treats of a topic from an authors personal point of view, often taking into account subjective experiences and personal reflections upon them. ... A critic (derived from the ancient Greek word krites meaning a judge) is a person who offers a value judgement or an interpretation. ... Sir Thomas Malory wrote the most famous fictional biography of the Middle Ages with Le Morte dArthur about the life of King Arthur. ... History is a term for information about the past. ... How to describe the literature of a nation is often debatable, and is also in natural flux throughout the nations history, so this beginners guide to Canadian literature will offer links to as many actual Canadian authors as possible so the reader can weigh what is being said... Anarchism is a term which encompasses a variety of political philosophies, social movements, and political ideologies that advocate the abolition of all forms of imposed or involuntary authority including social hierarchy and coercive power. ...

Woodcock was born in Winnipeg, but moved with his parents to England at an early age. The family was quite poor, but Woodcock had the opportunity to go to university in Oxford on a scholarship. However, he turned down the chance, because he would have had to have joined the clergy. {{Canadian City/Disable Field={{{Disable Motto Link}}}}} Motto: Unum Cum Virtute Multorum (One With the Strength of Many) City of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Location. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831 377/km² Religion... A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. ... This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ... Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. ...

Instead, he took at job as a clerk at the Great Western Railway, and it was while there that he first became interested in anarchism (specifically libertarian socialism). He was to remain an anarchist for the rest of his life, writing several books on the subject, including the aforementioned Anarchism, The Anarchist Reader (an anthology edited by him; 1977) and biographies of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Peter Kropotkin. Bristol Temple Meads railway station, the original terminus at Bristol. ... Libertarian socialism is any one of a group of political philosophies dedicated to opposing coercive forms of authority and social hierarchy, in particular the institutions of capitalism and the state. ... Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (pronounced Pruood-on, not prowd-hon) (January 15, 1809 - January 19, 1865) was a French anarchist of the 19th century. ... Peter Kropotkin Prince Peter Alexeevich Kropotkin (In Russian Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин) (December 9, 1842 - February 8, 1921) was one of Russias foremost anarchists and one of the first advocates of what he called anarchist communism: the model of society he advocated for most of his life was that of...

Also around this time, he met several prominent literary figures, including T. S. Eliot and Aldous Huxley. He first came to know George Orwell after the two of them had a public disagreement in the pages of the Partisan Review when Orwell wrote that pacifism was "objectively pro-Fascist". As a pacifist himself, Woodcock took exception to this. However, the two met and became good friends, with Woodcock later writing The Crystal Spirit, a biography of Orwell which won a Governor General's Award in 1966 Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965), was a major Modernist Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and literary critic. ... Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (July 26, 1894 - November 22, 1963) was a British writer who emigrated to the United States. ... George Orwell George Orwell was the pen name of British author Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950). ... Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003. ... Pacifism is opposition to the practice of war. ... Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, refers to the right-wing authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. ... Each winner of the 1966 Governor Generals Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts. ... -1...

Woodcock spent World War II working on a farm. Following the war, he moved to Canada and settled in Vancouver. In 1955, he took a post in the English department of the University of British Columbia, where he stayed until the 1970s. Around this time he started to write more prolifically, producing several travel books and collections of poetry, as well as the works on anarchism for which he is best known. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Bales of hay on a farm near Ames, Iowa A farm is the basic unit in agriculture. ... {{Canadian City/Disable Field={{{Disable Motto Link}}}}} Motto: By sea, land and air we prosper City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Location. ... The University of British Columbia (UBC) is located on Point Grey near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. ... Events and trends Although in the United States and in many other Western societies the 1970s are often seen as a period of transition between the turbulent 1960s and the more conservative 1980s and 1990s, many of the trends that are associated widely with the Sixties, from the Sexual Revolution...

Towards the end of his life, Woodcock became increasingly interested in what he saw as the plight of Tibetans. He travelled to India, studied Buddhism, became friends with the Dalai Lama and established the Tibetan Refugee Aid Society. This article is on Historic Tibet. ... Statues of Buddha such as this, the Tian Tan Buddha statue in Hong Kong, remind followers to practice right living. ... Tenzin Gyatso is the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama. ...

Woodcock was honoured with several awards, including a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada in 1968, the UBC Medal for Popular Biography in 1973 and 1976 and the Molson Prize in 1973. However, he only accepted awards given by his peers, refusing several awards given by the Canadian government, including the Order of Canada. The one exception to this was the award of the Freedom of the City of Vancouver, which he accepted in 1994. The Royal Society of Canada, The Canadian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities, is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars. ... The Molson Prize for the Arts is awarded by The Canada Council for the Arts. ... The Order of Canada is Canadas highest civilian honour, awarded to those who adhere to the Orders motto Desiderantes meliorem patriam meaning they desire a better country. ...

External link

• A Woodcock biography, with links to several Woodcock editorials (http://www.canlit.ca/resources/woodcock.html)