Charles Mair

Charles Mair ( born September 21, 1838 in Lanark County, Upper Canada, † July 7, 1927 in Victoria, British Columbia) was a Canadian poet and playwright. As a member of the Canadian Party and co-founder of Canada First he fought against the US-led Louis Riel provisional government during the Red River Rebellion.

Biography

In 1857 he interrupted his medical studies at Queen's University in Kingston after one year, to help the fallen into financial distress wood trading company of his family. For ten years he worked as a salesman and began at that time to write poetry. 1868 his first volume of poetry Dreamland and other poems was published, the romantic description of untouched nature was greatly influenced by John Keats. In the same year he was one of the founders of the movement Canadafirst, whose aim was to promote Canadian nationalism.

William McDougall, Minister of Public Works, Mair appointed to his secretary to assist him in preparing for the transition from Rupert's land to the Canadian state. Mair was the same for several newspapers, including The Globe, worked as a correspondent in the Red River colony. He married Eliza McKenney, niece of John Christian Schultz. Through his friendship with the founder of the Canadian nationalist party Mair was drawn into the events of the Red River Rebellion. After he and fifty other men had barricaded themselves in Schultz's house, he was taken prisoner and was sentenced to death

However, Mair was later able to flee to Ontario, where he fanned the flames of hatred against Louis Riel and the Provisional Government together with Schultz. A manuscript on which he had worked for five years, was lost during the rebellion. Mair led a shop in Portage la Prairie and worked as an agent for the North West Emigration Aid Society, which supported immigrants. He continued to write poems for various newspapers and moved in 1877 with his family to Prince Albert on.

During the Northwest Rebellion in 1885 Mair belonged to a unit of volunteers who guarded a telegraph station. In 1886 he published a blank verse drama Tecumseh, his most important literary work. It refers to the life of the Indian chief Tecumseh and represents the Canadian government is as a heroic joint venture of the British Empire, which stands in contrast to the divisive individualism of the United States. 1889 Mair was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada. In the following years he worked as an immigration agent again. Based on his work as a secretary for James Andrew Joseph McKenna, he published in 1908 Through the Mackenzie Basin, in which he calls to protect the customs and traditions of indigenous people from the harmful effects of civilization.

His last years were spent Mair in Victoria, British Columbia. In 1924 he received an honorary doctorate from Queen's University.

Works

  • Dreamland and other poems. Sampson Low, Son & Marston, London 1868.
  • Tecumseh. A drama. Hunter, Rose & Co. and Others, Toronto et al 1886.
  • Through the Mackenzie Basin. A narrative of the Athabasca and Peace River treaty expedition of 1899. Notes on the mammals and birds of northern Canada by Roderick MacFarlane. William Briggs, Toronto, 1908.
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