Frank Oliver Call

Born in West Brome, Quebec, in 1878, Frank Oliver Call built a life around literature, languages, and teaching. He studied at Bishop’s University and McGill University, with additional study in Paris and Marburg, and later taught modern languages at both Bishop’s and McGill.

Alongside his academic career, he wrote poetry and travel books that drew on Canadian landscapes and French-speaking culture. His books include Acanthus and Wild Grape, Blue Homespun, The Spell of French Canada, and The Spell of Acadia, and he also wrote a biography of Marguerite Bourgeoys.

Call died in 1956 in Knowlton, Quebec. Today he is remembered as part of early 20th-century Canadian literary life: a writer whose poems are often musical and meditative, and whose prose carried a warm interest in the people and regions he knew best.