Sir Charles G. D. Roberts

2009—Literary Arts

Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, 1860-1943

Charles George Douglas Roberts, often praised as ‘the father of Canadian literature,’ spent his boyhood in the Tantramar area. Though he left at 14, living subsequently in Fredericton, New York, Paris, London and Toronto, vivid images of the wind-swept tidal flats and salt marshes remained imprinted on his memory. Much of his verse drew inspiration from that vision and when he chose to set prose works in the haunts of his youth, his picturesque descriptions of local landscapes gave a strong sense of place to his writing.

Roberts’ poems, novels, historical writing and animal stories profoundly influenced generations of Canadian readers, writers and conservationists. In 1926 he was awarded the Lorne Pierce Medal by the Royal Society of Canada for his contributions to literature. His knighthood, in 1935, crowned a career that spanned the years from before Confederation to the Second World War.