McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Whiten, Clifton, 1939-2003
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
1939-2003
History
Clifton John Findlay Whiten was born in 1939 in Vernon, British Columbia.
He was a Canadian poet, editor, teacher, and small press publisher. He worked as a reporter and poetry editor for the Penticton Herald before becoming a teacher. He taught English at a high school in Malton, Ontario. He published his debut collection of poems, “Putting the Birthdate into Perspective,” in 1969. Whiten spent years trying to publish a follow-up collection, submitting the work to nine publishers under various titles. In 1979, he left teaching and founded his own small press, Sandpiper Press, which published his second collection of poems, “Various Titles: Selected poems, 1970-1978.” The same year, Whiten launched Poetry Canada Review, Canada's earliest poetry tabloid. He edited the magazine until 1984 when he sold it to ECW Press. He was editor of the Mattawa Recorder (Mattawa, Ontario) in 1988 and publisher and editor of the Raven Review (North Bay, Ontario) from 1995.
He was married to Barbara Jean Stevens and had two daughters, Shauna Jean and Meghan Anne. He died on May 3, 2003, in North Bay, Ontario.