1969 Fredericton Encaenia
Buckler, Ernest Redmond
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)
Orator: MacNutt, W. Stewart
Image
Citation:
ENCAENIA, MAY, 1969
ERNEST REDMOND BUCKLER
to be Doctor of Letters
Ernest Buckler does not play the guitar, appear as a panellist on television, or get arrested at the Pentagon. In no novelist is there less of the huckster or public figure. This is a man who lives quietly, almost shyly, in an old white house in the Annapolis Valley -- and writes novels.
Educated at Dalhousie University and the University of Toronto, student of science, mathematics and philosophy, Mr. Buckler spent five years working in Toronto before returning to farming in Nova Scotia, where he began to write largely for his own amusement. Finding to his pleasure that what amused him also amused the editors of the best magazines on this continent, he pursued his new career with devotion. His first novel, The Mountain and the Valley, appeared in 1952 and has established itself as one of the classics of Canadian writing. His latest book, Ox Bells and Fireflies, was published last fall, and discriminating readers recognized Mr. Buckler as one of the finest chroniclers of the human condition as it is experienced in our own region.
A boy is born, grows up, lives and dies in the Annapolis Valley: and into that simple tale Ernest Buckler weaves a lifetime's insight and perception. Through the magic of a countryman's stubborn affection for fact combined with an iridescent prose style, the commonplace stands revealed as the eternal. The cast of an old woman's smile is now -- and forever.
What is man? Flesh, Ernest Buckler once wrote, flesh that has seen its own bone. He has looked deep into the ironies of human existence, and the gifts his talents bring are available to anyone who can read. But he has never ceased to be one of us, a man from the Maritimes; and the University of New Brunswick, proud of its long connection with the growth of literature in our country, feels privileged to honour him.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case70, Box 1
ERNEST REDMOND BUCKLER
to be Doctor of Letters
Ernest Buckler does not play the guitar, appear as a panellist on television, or get arrested at the Pentagon. In no novelist is there less of the huckster or public figure. This is a man who lives quietly, almost shyly, in an old white house in the Annapolis Valley -- and writes novels.
Educated at Dalhousie University and the University of Toronto, student of science, mathematics and philosophy, Mr. Buckler spent five years working in Toronto before returning to farming in Nova Scotia, where he began to write largely for his own amusement. Finding to his pleasure that what amused him also amused the editors of the best magazines on this continent, he pursued his new career with devotion. His first novel, The Mountain and the Valley, appeared in 1952 and has established itself as one of the classics of Canadian writing. His latest book, Ox Bells and Fireflies, was published last fall, and discriminating readers recognized Mr. Buckler as one of the finest chroniclers of the human condition as it is experienced in our own region.
A boy is born, grows up, lives and dies in the Annapolis Valley: and into that simple tale Ernest Buckler weaves a lifetime's insight and perception. Through the magic of a countryman's stubborn affection for fact combined with an iridescent prose style, the commonplace stands revealed as the eternal. The cast of an old woman's smile is now -- and forever.
What is man? Flesh, Ernest Buckler once wrote, flesh that has seen its own bone. He has looked deep into the ironies of human existence, and the gifts his talents bring are available to anyone who can read. But he has never ceased to be one of us, a man from the Maritimes; and the University of New Brunswick, proud of its long connection with the growth of literature in our country, feels privileged to honour him.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case70, Box 1
Citations may be reproduced for research purposes only. Publication in whole or in part requires written permission from the author.