The Writers’ Union of Canada is deeply saddened by the death of Eugene Benson, who served as the Union’s Chair in 1983-84, and was a great friend and valued advisor to Union leadership and staff.
Eugene Benson was a playwright, editor, librettist, literary critic, and novelist. Born in Northern Ireland in 1928, he obtained an MA from the University of Western Ontario, and a PhD from the University of Toronto, and for many years was a professor of English at the University of Guelph where he met his wife and fellow University of Guelph scholar, Renate Niklaus Benson (1938-2018). He was founding co-President (with Margaret Atwood) of PEN Canada.
Benson’s active involvement in issues involving Canadian writing and publishing never diminished, even into his 90s. In recent years, he addressed both the Union’s membership and the Canada Council for the Arts through his AGM Motion concerning the possible renaming of the Governor General’s Awards for Literature. Referring to his own continued writing after retirement (in a 2015 article on the University of Guelph website), Benson said “I can’t not do it.”
The author of two novels, The Bulls of Ronda and the political satire Power Game (adapted for television as the film North of America), Benson also had drama produced on the CBC. His scholarly work included a biography of Irish poet and playwright John Millington Synge, and the editing of The Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre and The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. He also edited the magazine Canadian Drama for a number of years. In 2019, Benson published his memoir, The Symmetry of the Tyger.
Union staff and leadership extend our heartfelt condolences to the Benson family.
