Pratt, E. J. (1882-1964), was a Canadian poet known for his epics of Canadian history and his narrative poems. The typical hero of his works is a group or community.
His first book, Newfoundland Verse (1923), marks his lifelong interest in the sea as a world of primitive clashes. The Titanic (1935) retells the story of the ocean liner that sank in 1912.
In Brebeuf and His Brethren (1940), Pratt wrote about Jesuit missionaries who worked among the Canadian Indians in the 1600’s. Towards the Last Spike (1952) is an account of the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Pratt’s best works have been brought together in The Collected Poems of E. J. Pratt (1958). Edwin John Pratt was born on Feb. 4, 1882, in Western Bay, Newfoundland, near Carbonear. He died on April 26, 1964.
