Early life, education, and career Pacey was born in 1917 in
Dunedin,
New Zealand to parents William and Mary. After his father was killed during the
First World War, Pacey and his mother moved to England; in 1931, Mary married a Canadian farmer, and the family emigrated to
Ontario, Canada. Pacey began his academic career in 1940 when he accepted a post at
Brandon University in
Manitoba. Pacey published important work on
Frederick Philip Grove,
Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, and
Ethel Wilson, among others. He worked as a contributing editor for
Carl Klinck's landmark
Literary History of Canada. Legacy and honors Pacey was awarded honorary degrees from the University of New Brunswick and from
Mount Allison University in 1973. UNB launched its annual W.C. Desmond Pacey Memorial Lecture in 1980/81, at which time the first lecture was given by
Northrop Frye. Most recently, in 2011/12, the lecture was given by
Tony Penikett, two-term
Premier of the
Yukon. According to Philip Kokotalio, Pacey is often "regarded as a champion of social and environmental realism in Canada." The critic
Frank Davey has argued that Pacey "demanded that the Canadian writer demonstrate his freedom from colonial
mimicry by attending to Canadian experience." ==Selected works==