Smart, Elizabeth

  • From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: See full biography at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Smart_(Canadian_author)
  • Wiki profile notes:
    • Elizabeth Smart (December 27, 1913 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian poet and novelist. Her best-known work is the novel By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept (1945), an extended prose poem inspired by her romance with the poet George Barker.
    • Smart was born to a prominent family in Ottawa, Ontario; her father, Russel Smart, was a lawyer, and the family had a summer house on Kingsmere Lake located next door to the future Prime Minister of Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Her sister, Jane became a filmmaker, teacher and sculptor.
    • Eager to launch her writing career, Smart quit the Journal and left Ottawa for good. Traveling on her own, she visited New York, Mexico and California, joining a writers’ colony at Big Sur. While there, Smart made contact with Barker through Lawrence Durrell, paying to fly Barker and his wife to the United States from Japan where he was teaching. Soon after meeting, they began a tumultuous affair which was to last for years.
    • In 1941, after becoming pregnant, Smart returned to Canada, settling in Pender Harbour, British Columbia to have the child she would name Georgina. Barker attempted to visit her in Canada, but Smart’s family influenced government officials: he was stopped at the border and turned back because of “moral turpitude”. During this time Smart produced her best-known work, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept (1945). I
  • Third Great Granddaughter of Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=5896
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/162086563/elizabeth-smart