Fonds F0353 - Edgar Wardwell McInnis fonds

Edgar Wardwell McInnis was an educator, author and university administrator, who was born in Charlottetown, P. E. I. on July 26, 1899. McInnis took his first degree (B. A. 1923) at the University of Toronto, after serving in the Canadian Heavy Artillery in the First World War. He was a Rhodes Scholar and he received further degrees in History from Oxford University (B.A. 1926, M.A. 1930), where he won the Newdigate Prize for English Verse. McInnis taught at Oberlin College, Ohio and the University of Toronto (1928-1952), and served as the President of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (1952-1960) prior to his appointment as the first faculty member and History professor of York University in 1960. McInnis taught History at York until his retirement in 1968, (Emeritus Professor of History, 1969-1973). He also served York as a University Orator, as Chair of the History Department, 1962-1968 and as Dean of Graduate Studies at the University, 1963-1965. He remained at Glendon College following the opening of the Keele Street campus in 1965. McInnis was a prolific writer. Notably, he twice won the Governor-General's Award for Non-Fiction, first in 1943 for "The Unguarded Frontier: a History of American-Canadian relations" and second in 1945 for "The war: the fourth year". His "Canada: a Political and Social History" went through three editions in his lifetime and was a standard text for a generation of Canadian History students. In addition to numerous works on History and International Relations, McInnis published works of poetry, including "On the road to Arras," (1924) and "Eleven poems," which appeared in the anthology "Modern Canadian Poetry" (1930). Many of his works were written for a wider audience than the academic community, which reflected his activities outside of the university. In 1952 McInnis was a member of the Canadian delegation to the United Nation's Seventh General Assembly. McInnis died on September 28, 1973 in Toronto, Ontario.