George E. (George Earle) Merkley

George E. Merkley, also listed as George Earle Merkley, was born in 1865. He is associated with Canadian Melodies and Poems (1893), a volume of verse published in Toronto, and A Modern Rhetoric (1902), a prose guide to composition and style.

The preface to Canadian Melodies and Poems gives one of the few personal glimpses available: Merkley says several poems grew out of the routine of college life, and that many were written while he was abroad. That helps explain the book's mix of youthful feeling, travel-bred perspective, and a loose connection to Canadian themes.

Reliable biographical details beyond his books are scarce, and even reference sources differ on his death year. What can be said with confidence is that his work survives as part of the small but interesting record of Canadian literary culture at the end of the 19th century.