The Self-Completing Tree

Front Cover
Dundurn, 1986 - Literary Criticism - 287 pages

The Self-Completing Tree is the author's own collection of the best of her last 50 years of writing. In this new edition, the celebrated Grand Dame of English Canadian letters and award-winning poet uses the metaphor implied by the title — a tree, half verdant, half in flames — to symbolize the androgynous self. This is the theme of much of Livesay's work and a central metaphor for the most definitive collection of her poetry. The result is a spiritual autobiography charting the fascinating domains of her own life and the universal struggles we all share.

About the author (1986)

Dorothy Livesay was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on October 12, 1909. Educated at the University of Toronto and the Sorbonne, she worked in left politics during the 1930s. As a teacher, she worked in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) from 1959 to 1963. She then taught as a writer-in-residence at a number of universities, including the University of Alberta, the University of Victoria, and St. John's College, University of Manitoba. Besides being a professor, she also worked as a journalist, and editor. Livesay was the founder and first editor of CVII and a founding member of the League of Canadian Poets. The B.C. book prize for poetry is named in her honour. She won the Governor General's Literary Award in the poetry category in 1944 for Day And Night, and again in 1947 for Poems for People. Livesay was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1987. Livesay died in 1996.

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