Collaborations

The Liaison director (Jan M' Ghee) of Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula (CACSP) on Vancouver Island contacted us in November 2010 to ask for some original Al Purdy Manuscript material to use for a community project in Sidney, one of Purdy's former homes.  When Sydney removed Hydro poles a few years before they were left with unsightly Hydro boxes, which were effectively wrapped in digital copies of original art by local artists and for the one remaining box they hoped to wrap it with Al Purdy images. Using some images from U of S Special Collections, the Hydro boxes were wrapped with support from Purdy's publisher, his widow, and Jean Baird (who spearheads a fund-raiser to buy Purdy's old A-Frame) and images can be seen below.

Bibliography

Bibliography of Al Purdy's library in Sydney, British Columbia and Ameliasburg, Ontario: Ameliasburg Library List and Sydney Library List.   Lists compiled in 2007 by University of Toronto Professor Sam Solecki.  The asterisked items are considered particularly valuable.  The number occuring after each entry indicates condition, from 1 to 5, 5 being near-mint or mint.

Additional Material

Yours, Al. Mississauga: Wombat Productions, 2006. First-person narrative film of several of Purdy's greatest poems starring Canadian icon Gordon Pinsent.

Books and Journals

The Bukowski/Purdy Letters: A Decade of Dialogue, 1964-1974. Edited by Seamus Cooney. Santa Barbara: The Paget Press. 1983.

Criticism

Essay from University of Saskatchewan Professor Susan (Beckman) Gingell, published in Notable Works & Collections, June 1979. PDF

Video Readings Of Purdy's Poetry

Yours, Al.  Gorden Pinset plays Al Purdy in this quasi-biographical made for TV special.

"At the Quinte Hotel."  Gordon Downie [Tragically Hip] stars in this dramatic reading of the Al Purdy poem "At the Quinte Hotel."  Al Purdy narrates.

A Video "For Al Purdy":