Edward A. Lacey (1937-1995) wrote and published what is known as the first openly gay poetry collection in English-speaking Canada. The book, The Forms of Loss, was sponsored by Dennis Lee and Margaret Atwood.
Edward A. Lacey was born and raised in Lindsay, Ontario, the only child to parents with prominent community connections: his grandfather was Dr. Fabian Blanchard; his father’s business partner was I.E. Weldon. Many of his cousins became priests or nuns, and it was expected Edward would also join the clergy if he didn’t become a doctor or a lawyer.
Even as a child, Edward knew he was different. In his teens, he knew he wasn’t like his hockey-playing friends. He possessed a keen mind for linguistics that won him scholarships to the University of Toronto and the University of Texas.
As primed for success as he was, Edward wore a path of self-destruction around the globe. He operated on the principle that “homosexuality was intrinsically subversive, individualistic, anti-family, anti-regimentation.” Multiple times, he was nearly expelled from university. He frequently spent time in jail. He got himself banned from entering the United States. For most of his life he slummed through third-world countries, working as a professor or tutor, or living a life of leisure, while penning the occasional poem or translating one from another language.
In 1995 Edward’s self-destruction fulfilled its ultimate conclusion, while his body of work attained barely a whisper in the landscape of Canadian literature despite its brilliance. When Fraser Sutherland published his biography of Edward Lacey, the Malahat Review said “many academic readers will no doubt be interested in what amounts to a very well-researched and entertaining biography of a heretofore neglected Canadian poet.”
subVERSE: the life and work of Edward A. Lacey is an exhibition that spotlights the body of work that Lacey left behind and his complicated connection to his much-hated hometown.
On exhibit at Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives, located at 150 Victoria Avenue North. 705-324-3404, info@klmuseumarchives.ca. Admission is $5/adult, $3/child(6-18). Admission is free for children under 6 and for members of the Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives. Visit https://www.klmuseumarchives.ca/ for more information.
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