Series 5 - Charles Bruce

Charles Bruce was born in Port Shoreham, Nova Scotia, in 1906 to Sarah Jane Tory and William Henry Bruce. He attended Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, during which time he struck up a correspondence with poet and journalist Andrew Merkel. He worked as editor for the Argosy during his time at school, then was able to get a job with the Halifax Morning Chronicle after graduating in 1927, during which time he met his wife, Agnes King, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From 1928 onward, he worked for the Canadian Press, first in Halifax, then in Toronto, Ontario. During his career there, he was an editor, a war correspondent during the Second World War, and eventually, general superintendent. He published multiple books of poetry and one novel, and his poems appeared in various magazines. His book of poems, The Mulgrave Road, won the Governor General’s award for English-language poetry or drama in 1951, and he was awarded an honourary Doctor of Letters from Mount Allison University in 1952. He retired in 1963, and passed away in 1971. He and his wife had four children, including Harry Bruce, who was also an accomplished writer.

Journalist and poet Andrew Doane Merkel was born in New York State in the mid 1880s. He came to Nova Scotia as a boy when his father, Anglican Minister Rev. A. Deb Merkel, took over a parish in Digby. From 1904 to 1905, he attended the University of King's College in Windsor, Nova Scotia, then moved to Sydney, Nova Scotia to attend the university's School of Engineering from 1905 to 1907. He did not complete this degree due to the closure of the engineering school, and represented his classmates to the King's Board of Governors while the school was closing. Merkel married Florence (Tully) E. Sutherland from Windsor and had three children: J. Arthur, Peggy, and Mary-Elizabeth. Merkel spent most of his adult life in Halifax and is known to have lived on South Park Street. He was a journalist for both the Philadelphia North American and the Sydney Record, in the 1900s, an editor for the Saint John Standard from 1908 to 1910 and of the Halifax Echo from 1910 to 1917, the Maritime News Editor for the Canadian Press from 1917 to 1919, and finally, the Superintendent of Canadian Press Atlantic Division from 1919 to 1946. He died in 1954.

Merkel was also a poet and avid historian. His first book length poem, The Order of Good Cheer, wasn’t published until 1944 although he completed it in the early 1920s. His second book length poem, Tallahassee, was published the following year. Both works illustrate his interest in Nova Scotian history; The Order of Good Cheer is about Nova Scotia’s first French settlers while Tallahassee is about Halifax during the American civil war. He published two works of non-fiction as well, Letters from the Front (1914), and Bluenose Schooner (1948). Merkel was also a member of the Halifax literary group called The Song Fishermen and often hosted meetings of the group, which included fellow writers such as Charles G.D. Roberts, Charles Bruce, Kenneth Leslie, and Robert Norwood.