Robert T. Anderson (poet)

Robert Thompson Anderson (August 2, 1880 – April 3, 1960) was a Canadian poet.

Biography

He was born in Rapid City, Manitoba; spent his late teens and twenties in Lemon Creek, British Columbia; later moved to Edmonton, Alberta; served overseas in the cavalry in World War I with the 19th Alberta Dragoons; and then lived in Edmonton until his death. He was sometimes known as the "Kipling of the Kooteneays" and "the Bard of Lemon Creek."

Anderson showed an early interest in poetry; although his formal education ended at Grade 4, he was already composing poems in his late teens. He primarily wrote poems in English but also wrote in French Canadian and Scottish dialects. Anderson wrote in rhymed iambic verse.

Anderson's poetry collection Troopers in France (1932) was described at "filled with thoughtful and sometimes bitter poems about the tragedy of war." Other collections include Old Timers and Other Poems (published in 1909 by the Edmonton Printing and Publishing Co.) and Canadian Born and Other Poems (published in 1913 by Esdale Press).