Scott, F. R. (Francis Reginald), 1899-1985

F.R. Scott was born in Québec City on August 1st, 1899. He led a varied life as a poet, constitutional lawyer, and politician. He completed his schooling at Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, Québec in 1919, taught for one year, and then studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1920. Scott returned to Montréal in 1923 and entered the Law School at McGill University in 1924. During this time he was involved in The McGill Daily Literary Supplement and The McGill Fortnightly Review which he helped to establish. In 1928 he joined the Law Faculty at McGill as Assistant Professor of constitutional and federal law. In 1931-1932, Scott and historian Frank Underhill founded the League for Social Reconstruction, a socialist study group. During the 1930s and 1940s, he was involved in editing and he contributed to a number of literary magazines. Scott was also active with the C.C.F., and published his first collection of poetry, Overture, in 1945. He published Events and Signals in 1954 and Eye of the Needle in 1957. He was appointed Macdonald Professor of Law in 1955 and was Dean of Law from 1961 to 1963. During the 1960s, Scott helped found the New Party, the successor to the C.C.F. and the predecessor to the N.D.P. Following his retirement from active party politics, he served on the Royal Commission on Biculturalism and Bilingualism. In 1977 his Essays on the Constitution won the Governor-General's Award. The same year, Poems of French Canada won the Canada Council translation prize and, three years later, Collected Poems won the Governor General's Award for poetry. Scott passed away in 1985.