Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
The Song Fishermen
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
[ca. 1928-1930]
History
The Song Fishermen was an informal literary society that emerged in Halifax in the 1920s in part by a shared belief that drawing on Nova Scotia folk culture could inject a vitality to writing lost by modernist poets. The group was led by Andrew and Tully Merkel, whose home on South Park Street became a salon of sorts for writers including Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, Robert Norwood, Evelyn Tufts, Stewart MacAuley, Kenneth Leslie and Ethel Butler. The Song Fishermen organized recitals, lectures, picnics and road trips, and published three illustrated broadsheets under the banner "Nova Scotia Catches" and 16 issues of a mimeographed periodical titled "The Song Fishermen's Song Sheet," which contained verses as well as letters and news. The group officially disbanded shortly before The Song Sheet ceased publication with its final number in April 1930, marked by a two-day celebration including poetry, reciting, piping, Highland dancing, and a marine trip to East Dover, Nova Scotia.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Related entity
Mackay, D.C. (1906-1979)
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
associative
Dates of relationship
1929 - ?
Description of relationship
D.C. Mackay illustrated the three broadsheets published by The Song Fishermen.
Related entity
Bruce, Charles Tory (1906 - 1971)
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
associative
Dates of relationship
[ca. 1920] - 1930
Description of relationship
Charles Bruce was a regular contributor to The Song Fishermen's Song Sheet and the author of the group's third illustrated broadsheet.
Related entity
Merkel, Andrew Doane (1884-1954)
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
associative
Dates of relationship
[ca. 1920] - 1930
Description of relationship
Andrew Merkel and his wife, Tully Merkel, were the informal hosts of The Song Fishermen, and Merkel was the editor of The Song Fishermen's Song Sheet and the author of the group's first illustrated broadsheet.
Related entity
Carman, Bliss (1861-1929)
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
associative
Dates of relationship
[ca. 1920] - 1930
Description of relationship
Bliss Carman was a regular contributor to The Song Fishermen's Song Sheet and suggested the name Abenaki Press for the broadsheets published by the group.
Related entity
Leslie, Kenneth (1892-1974)
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
associative
Dates of relationship
[ca. 1920] - 1930
Description of relationship
Kenneth Leslie was a regular contributor to The Song Fishermen's Song Sheet and the author of the group's second illustrated broadsheet.
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Gwendolyn Davies, Studies in Maritime Literary History, 1760-1930. Fredericton, NB: Acadiensis Press, 1991.