Harold Standish

Who was Harold Standish?

Harold Edwin Standish was a Canadian poet and novelist, best known for his 1949 novel The Golden Time and his long poem The Lake of Souls. A significant Canadian modernist along with the likes of Earle Birney, Douglas LePan, and Sheila Watson, Standish was known for his experiments with literary form and skeptical views of Canadian nationalism at a time, during the 1950s and 60s, when many Canadians sought to establish a distinctive literary tradition for Canada. Largely forgotten in recent years, his work remains significant for its vivid evocations of working class life in rural Southern Ontario.