Harry L. Symons

Harry Lutz Symons (1893 - 1962) was a Canadian writer, who won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1947 for Ojibway Melody,[1] a volume of humorous essays about summer recreational life on Ontario's Georgian Bay.[2]

Harry L. Symons
BornHarry Lutz Symons
1893
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died1962
Occupationhumorist, novelist, non-fiction writer
NationalityCanadian
Period1940s-1960s
Notable worksOjibway Melody

His other works included Friendship (1943),[3] Three Ships West (1949),[4] The Bored Meeting (1951)[5] and Orange Belt Special (1956), and the non-fiction works Fences (1958) and Playthings of Yesterday: Harry Symons introduces the Percy C. Band Collection (1963).

Symons, the son of architect William Limberry Symons,[6] was an ace fighter pilot in World War I[7] and later worked in insurance[8] and real estate.[6]

His son Thomas Symons, a noted academic, founding president of Trent University, and former chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission,[9] credits the values expressed in Ojibway Melody with framing his career and contributing to Trent's decision to establish Canada's first university department in Indigenous Studies.[10] Another son, Scott Symons, was a writer whose 1967 novel Place d'Armes was the first gay-themed novel published in Canada.[6]

References
  1. W. H. New, Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada. University of Toronto Press, 2002. ISBN 0802007619. p. 75.
  2. Lyn Harrington, Syllables of Recorded Time: The Story of the Canadian Authors Association 1921-1981. Dundurn Press, 1981. ISBN 0-88924-112-0.
  3. University of Toronto Quarterly, Volume 13. University of Toronto Press, 1944. p. 358.
  4. The New International Year Book 1949. Dodd, Mead and Company, 1950. p. 85.
  5. "True truth". Saturday Night Volume 66, Part 2, 1951.
  6. "His life was his art. Alas, it was not a masterpiece". The Globe and Mail, February 27, 2009.
  7. H. Creagen, "H.L. Symons--Ace & Author," Canadian Aviation Historical Society Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Winter 1964), p. 113
  8. "Prof. Lower's History Gets Vice-Regal Award". Winnipeg Tribune, April 19, 1947.
  9. Symons, Thomas H. B., 1929- Trent University
  10. Dick Bourgeois-Doyle, What's So Funny?: Lessons from Canada's Leacock Medal for Humour Writing. General Store Publishing House, 2015. ISBN 978-1-77123-342-2. p. 11


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