Nobel prize winner and essayist Anne Carson is the latest winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and she has a more than passing familiarity with this part of the world.
Carson’s family moved to Port Hope in 1966, when her father, a Toronto-Dominion Bank manager, was transferred to the community. She attended Port Hope High School during what would become a pivotal year in her life.
It was there that Carson met Alice Cowan, a Latin teacher who recognized her fascination with ancient Greek and offered to teach her the language during lunch. The two worked through an old Greek primer and read the poetry of Sappho together. Carson has repeatedly credited Cowan with changing the course of her life, saying, “I owe my career and happiness to Alice Cowan in Port Hope High School.”
Carson has also recalled her years in Port Hope as an important period in her adolescence. In an interview, she said her family lived there for six or seven years and described it as the place where she and her brother reached the end of their adolescence.
For Port Hope, Carson’s story offers a remarkable connection to one of Canada’s most celebrated literary figures — and to the teacher who helped set her on the path to the Nobel Prize.
(Richard Evans)
