George Grube

George Maximilian Antony Grube (3 August 1899 – 13 December 1982) was a classicist and translator of Plato, Aristotle, Demetrius of Phaleron, Longinus and Marcus Aurelius, as well as a Canadian democratic socialist political activist.

He was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on 3 August 1899,^[1] and was educated in the United Kingdom.^[2] He served as a translator for the Belgium Army, attached to the British Expeditionary Force during the First World War.^[3] He attended Cambridge University's Emmanuel College, where he received his Master's degree in 1925.^[1][2]

He moved to Canada in 1928, to begin his career as a professor of classics at the University of Trinity College in the University of Toronto (UofT).^[3] He became the head of the classics department in 1931.^[2] Grube was a socialist, and serving in WWI turned him into a passionate pacifist.^[2] During his tenure at the UofT, he was involved in the Toronto branch of the League for Social Reconstruction (LSR), serving as president from 1934-1935.^[2] When the LSR took control of the nearly bankrupt magazine, Canadian Forum, Grube became its editor from 1937 to 1941.^[1] It was during his tenure at the magazine that it became the main media outlet for the LSR's publications.^[4]

From 1944 to 1946, Grube was the President of the Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation's (CCF) executive, often acting as the public spokesperson for the party after its leader, Ted Jolliffe, lost his seat in the Ontario general election on 4 June 1945.^[5][6] He also ran unsuccessfully several times for the House of Commons seat in what was then known as the Broadview electoral district during the 1940s.^[1]

In August 1961, he was one of the co-chairs presiding over the New Democratic Party's founding convention in Ottawa.^[1] In 1968, he won the Award of Merit from the American Philological Association (APA) for his 1965 book The Greek and Roman Critics.^[7] The APA gave him the award for "outstanding contribution to classical scholarship."^[7] Two-years later, while still the head of the classics department, he retired from UofT in 1970.^[3]

He continued writing new translations of Plato's works until his death. In his later years, he had health issues, and he finally succumbed to them in Toronto on 13 December 1982.^[3]

Bibliography

• Plato's Thought. London: Methuen, 1935.
• The Drama of Euripides. London: Methuen, 1941.
• On Great Writing, translation of On the Sublime, by Longinus. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1957.
• On Poetry and Style, translation with an introduction of The Poetics, by Aristotle. New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1958.
• A Greek Critic, translation with an introduction of On Style, by Demetrius of Phaleron. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1961.
• Meditations, translation of same by Marcus Aurelius. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963.
• The Greek and Roman Critics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965.
• How Did the Greeks Look at Literature. Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati Press, 1967.
• The Republic. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1974.
• Plato's Meno. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1976.
• Plato's Phaedo. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1977.
• Five Dialogues, translation of Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Crito, Meno, and Phaedo, by Plato. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1981.

Notes

1. Podlecki (1994), pp. 236-238
2. Horn (1980), p. 56
3. "George Grube, 83, pioneer in CCF". The Toronto Star (Toronto). 1982-12-15. p. A19.
4. Horn (1980), pp. 14, 202
5. Special to the Star (1945-11-26). "Drew flouting 48-hour order is C.C.F. charge". The Toronto Daily Star (Toronto). p. 17.
6. Star Staff (1946-12-12). "C.C.F. asks liquor votes". The Windsor Daily Star (Windsor, Ontario). p. 19. Retrieved 2011-08-21.
7. City Bureau (1968-01-06). "U of T professor wins award". The Toronto Daily Star (Toronto). p. 37.

References

• Horn, Michiel (1980). The League for Social Reconstruction: Intellectual origins of the democratic left in Canada, 1930–1942. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-5487-0.
• Podlecki, Anthony J. (1994). Ward W. Briggs Jr., ed. Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists. Wesport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-24560-6.