Henry Beissel

• Name — Henry Beissel • Birth Name — Henry Eric Beissel • Born — 12 April 1929 • Birthplace — Cologne, Rhine Province, Prussia, Germany • Died — 9 January 2025 • Place of death — Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Occupation — Writer and editor • Education — University of Toronto

Henry Beissel was born in Cologne, Germany, and survived the Second World War as a youth. He came to Canada in 1951. He first came to national attention with the controversial literary/political journal Edge (Edmonton 1963 – Montreal 1969). Beissel's internationally successful Inuk and the Sun ("a mythic masterpiece", Sherrill Grace) premiered at the Stratford Festival of Canada in 1973. This was followed by a U.S. premiere in 1977 at The Other Theatre in Chicago's Bernard Horwich Jewish Community Center with a musical score by Douglas L. Lieberman. The Other Theatre also commissioned Under Coyote's Eye and performed it at the Field Museum of Natural History. Beissel's work has been translated into many languages. Beissel had a long teaching career in English literature, and later in creative writing, which started as a teaching fellow at the University of Toronto. He taught at LMU Munich (1960–1962), the University of Alberta (1962–1964) and Concordia University (Montreal) (1966–1996), from which he retired as distinguished emeritus professor of English. Beissel lived with his wife, Arlette Francière, in Ottawa. He died on 9 January 2025, at the age of 95.

• The Curve, University of Alberta, 1963 • A Trumpet For Nap, Little Angel Theatre, London, England. 1970 • Are You Afraid of Thieves?, Universite du Quebec, 1973, La Troupe Brin'si • Inook And The Sun, The Stratford Festival, Canada, 1973 • For Crying Out Loud, Char-Lan Theatre Workshop, Williamstown, Ontario. 1975 • Goya, Montreal Theatre Lab, 1976 • Under Coyote's Eye, Other Theatre, Chicago, 1978 • The Emigrants, Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal. 1981 • Hedda Gabler, Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal. 1982 (translation) • The Noose, University of Winnipeg, 1985 • The Glass Mountain, University of Winnipeg, Manitoba. 1990