Earle birney biography for kids

Canadian poet (1904–1995)

Earle Alfred Birney OC FRSC (13 May 1904 – 3 September 1995) was a Canadian poet and novelist, who twice won the Governor General's Award, Canada's top literary honour, for his poetry.

Life

Born in Calgary in the North-West Territories' District of Alberta, and raised on a farm in Erickson, near Creston, British Columbia, his childhood was somewhat isolated. After working as a farm hand, a bank clerk, and a park ranger, Birney went on to college to study chemical engineering but graduated with a degree in English.

He studied at the University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, University of California, Berkeley and University of London.

Earle birney biography for kids pictures

During his year in Toronto he became a Marxist–Leninist. Through a brief and quickly annulled marriage to Sylvia Johnston, he was introduced to Trotskyism. In the 1930s he was an active Trotskyist in Canada, the United States and Britain and was the leading figure in the Socialist Workers