Parks Canada – Klein, Abraham Moses National Historic Person

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A. M. Klein was one of the best Canadian poets of his time. Combining modernism and Jewish literary traditions, he was among the first to publish a body of Jewish poetry in the English language. His works portrayed the unique character of the downtown Montréal neighbourhood where he lived most of his life, and mirrored the struggles and aspirations of a generation that witnessed both the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel. Klein’s work also reached beyond his community and depicted vivid scenes of Quebec and its people in The Rocking Chair and Other Poems, for which he received the Governor General’s Award in 1949.