Mr. Murray, I Presume: The ACPA Plays Sleuth

We take for granted that you are familiar with the Atlantic Canadian Poets' Archive. If not, you should be. www.stu.ca/acpa Go. Now. We'll wait.

Because on the internet, no one knows
you're a dog. Or a detective.

Now, before anything can be posted to the Atlantic Canadian Poets' Archive, a series of permissions is required. These permissions come from the contributor, the poet, and, in some cases, the poet's publisher. We do this because we don't want to get sued, but also because we feel it's polite to ask (we're Canadian). This is usually a straightforward process of emails or phone calls to a select two or three individuals, and all involved tend to be friendly and enthusiastic about the process. Occasionally, however, we meet with a consternation: enter the elusive, fabled literary executor.

The poet in question is Neil Murray, an Oxford-educated Newfoundlander who helped found TickleAce, but never published a full collection of his own. His work is sadly unavailable, outside of a few back-issues of poetry journals and a pair of anthologies of Newfoundland poetry. Having passed away in 1988, Mr. Murray is no longer writing poetry. Neither is he in any position to offer permission for us to publish his poem.

When we received an entry on Mr. Murray, we were faced with two problems: first, how to find out who Murray left as his executor and secondly, how to contact that person. We have met this problem before, so we knew to follow the usual channels. These include writers' groups such as the Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland or Writers' Federation of New Brunswick, publishers of the poet, and known contemporaries. In most cases these proved futile: Murray had not been a member of the WANL, and had never published a monograph. We knew Murray was a patron and instigator of the Newfoundland traditional music scene, but the Folk Arts Council of Newfoundland and Labrador, who have a stage named for Murray at their annual St. John's Folk Festival, had no idea who he was.

An accurate depiction of our frustration at this point.

Still it was Murray's love of folk art and culture, rather than his work as a poet and editor, that gave us our most successful lead: notable folklorist Phillip Hiscock, of Memorial University, had not only known Murray, but could put us in contact with his cousin Robin Whitaker, now an anthropology professor at MUN. She, in turn, led us to Murray's niece, who, through a series of inheritors, had named her mother, Ettie Gordon-Murray, as Murray's executor.

Or was she? Just as we went to publish, we received an email from Anita Best, a well-known Newfoundland folksinger who had written a tribute to Neil Murray. Best stated that Murray's literary executor was Patricia Greene. As of press time, neither Ettie Gordon-Murray nor Patricia Greene have finalized our correspondence.

But, in its way, this was liberating: we had achieved the requisite amount of contact and outreach to necessitate due diligence in such a case—that is, at least three documented attempts to obtain permission—and found a vague and indefinite situation which allowed us to proceed. Having done all due diligence, we go forward to publish our analysis of Neil Murray. In our estimation, he is an under-appreciated and unjustly forgotten figure, and we are proud to help maintain a presence for him in the canon.

                                                                               Lisa Banks & Patrick O'Reilly