Arthur Weir

Born in Montreal on June 17, 1864, he studied at Montreal High School and then at McGill University, earning a degree in chemistry in 1886. While at McGill he was editor-in-chief of the University Gazette, showing an early gift for writing as well as a strong place in the city’s intellectual life.

After graduating, he worked in journalism at the Montreal Star and later the Journal of Commerce. He also published the Stockbrokers’ and Investors’ Annual beginning in 1894. Poetry had been part of his life from boyhood, and his first collection, Fleur de Lys, and Other Poems (1887), was followed by The Romance of Sir Richard, Sonnets, and Other Poems (1890) and The Snowflake, and Other Poems (1897).

He was recognized in his lifetime as an honorary member of the Society of Canadian Literature, and in 1895 he was chosen to read poems for the unveiling of major public monuments in Ottawa. Though he died young in 1902, his poems continued to appear in important anthologies, helping preserve his place in early Canadian poetry.