Gerry Gilbert (April 7, 1936 – June 19, 2009) was a Canadian poet known for his rejection all awards and competitions on the basis that personal ambition in art led to a lack of sincerity. He was known as Vancouver's bicycle poet.bicycle poet
Life Gilbert was born in Calgary in 1936 during a trip between Toronto and Vancouver forcing his parents to stop briefly in Calgary. His art reflects this unique birth as much of its allure is a kind of tension between remaining and continuing. He attended the University of British Columbia before traveling to England and further study there. Gilbert then returned to Vancouver and although he died there he managed to live and travel across Canada and Europe in his younger years.
Gerry became a fixture in the Vancouver art scene and began a periodical anthology of writing that he distributed himself called British Columbia Monthly (later B.C. Monthly) in 1972 placing him among the ranks of Canadian artists participating in the mimeograph revolution. To some he was known as 'the Jude the Obscure of Vancouver poetry'.
Gerry hosted a radio show for many years on CFRO-FM Radio called radiofreerainforest. Gilbert's film and photography have been exhibited by the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, the Western Front, and the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver). He was a prolific writer whose work spanned from the early sixties into the beginnings of the 21st century. His largest and most comprehensive work is Moby Jane published by Toronto's Coach House Books in 1987.
He died in Vancouver.
Bibliography 1964:White Lunch, Periwinkle Press 1969:Phone Book, Weed Flower Press & Ganglia Press 1970:Doi,ngng, National Film Board of Canada, 1971:And, blewointment press Money, Georgia Straight Writing Supplement 1972:Lease, Coach House Press 1974:Skies, Talon Books 1974:Journal to the East, blewointment press 1976:Grounds, Talon Books 1977:From Next Spring, Coach House Books 1987:Moby Jane, Coach House Press 1988:So Long Song, Gorse Press 1989: The 1/2 of It, Wave 7 Press 1991:Azure Blues, Talon Books 1994:Year of the Rush, Underwhich Editions 1995:Sex and the Single Mushroom, Letters 1998:Poem Boooooooooooook, above/ground press Canadian Answers: Zap Poetry, Laurel Reed Books 2006:Perhaps, Bookthug
See also
Canadian literature Canadian poetry List of Canadian poets
References
From There to Here, by Frank Davey pp119–122, 1974 Press Porcepic In The Works: Back Roads to Next Spring's Gerry Gilbert Bibliography, by Nick Drumbolis, Letters, 1991, 370 p. New Star Books, News, Gerry Gilbert 1936-2009 http://www.newstarbooks.com/news.php?news_id=40034 Vancouver Art in the Sixties, People/Gerry Gilbert http://www.vancouverartinthesixties.com/people/32 ABC BookWorld/Gerry Gilbert http://www.abcbookworld.com/view_author.php?id=3429
External links
6 poems Alex Waterhouse-Hayward, Gerry Gilbert's Bicycle Robert Thompson, "On, The Way to Gerry Gilbert's Moby Jane Through Picture Windshield", Studies in Canadian Literature Jamie Reid, Gerry Gilbert 1936-2009, Schroedinger's Cat Gerry Gilbert tribute site Records of Gerry Gilbert are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books Gerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection at Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books