Poet Douglas Gordon Jones, who "was one of the great statesmen of Canadian poetry" and "lived during the formative post-war years of Canadian literary nationalism," died March 6, the Globe & Mail reported. He was 87. A double winner of the Governor-General's Award, Jones "provided an example to his fellow writers of how to span Canada's 'two solitudes' with grace and ease. He did this not just as a poet and translator, but as an essayist, an editor... and as a professor," the Globe & Mail wrote.
"Doug Jones was one of the most significant Quebec poets to follow the generation of F.R. Scott and A.M. Klein and Anne Hébert," said Michael Ondaatje. "He always had one of the most precise and careful as well as suggestive poetic voices in the country. I suppose my favorite book of his was Under the Thunder the Flowers Light up the Earth. It was one of the best books we did at Coach House Press."
