Wilfred Watson
Canadian playwrigt (1911–1998)
Wilfred Watson (May 1, 1911 – March 25, 1998) was professor emeritus of English at Canada's University of Alberta for many years. He was also an experimental Canadian poet and dramatist, whose innovative plays had a considerable influence in the 1960s. The Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) says that "Watson ushered in an avant-garde in Canadian theater years before the rear guard had fully emerged."
Life and work
Wilfred Watson was born in Rochester, England in 1911, the oldest child of Louisa Claydon and Frederick Walter Watson. When he was 15 his family immigrated to Canada and settled in Duncan, British Columbia. He attended the University of British Columbia from 1940 to 1943 and received a B.A. in English literature. In 1941 he married Sheila Martin Doherty, who as Sheila Watson would write the novel The Double Hook.
On graduating, Watson enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy for the balance of World War II. After the war he attended the University of Toronto, receiving his M.A. in 1946 and Ph.D. in 1951.
Wilfred Watson began his academic career in 1949 as a lecturer in English at the University of British Columbia. He taught at the University of Alberta in Calgary from 1951 to 1953. In 1954 he transferred to the Edmonton campus, where he remained as professor of English until retiring in 1977.
The public source identifies “Wilfred Watson” as canadian playwrigt (1911–1998). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wilfred, Watson and Canadian.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wilfred Watson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.