Morris Wolfe was a prolific writer and editor, whose essays, articles, reviews and columns appeared in numerous Canadian magazines and newspapers over decades of cultural life. He taught at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) between 1971 and 2001 where he became a mentor to 30 years of students.
Wolfe wrote, edited and co-edited more than a dozen books, including A Saturday Night Scrapbook; three volumes of Aurora: New Canadian Writing (1978-80); Signing On: The Birth of Radio in Canada; and Jolts: The TV Wasteland and the Canadian Oasis. In 1994 he won a Canadian Association of Journalists award for investigative journalism.
In 2003, grubstreet books published Menya: an end of life story, an account of his daughter’s final months in palliative care, supported at home by a team of fifty family members, friends and volunteers.
OCA 1967-1972: Five Turbulent Years, a lively account of what happened when Canada’s leading art school met the spirit of the late 1960s, was also published by grubstreet books. An earlier on-line edition of Essays, New & Selected, was released on the grubstreet books web site.
Morris Wolfe also worked as an editor on oral history projects, including Renia: A Holocaust Memoir, the full text of which is available on-line.
Morris Wolfe died on November 27, 2021. His obituary in The Globe and Mail is here. A full recording of his Celebration of Life, held in Toronto on July 22, 2022, is available here.
The Morris Wolfe Bursary
In honour and memory of Morris, York University has established the Morris Wolfe Bursary for Examining the Role of Media in Society. Full details including how to donate are available by clicking the link.