{{Short description|Canadian classics scholar and translator (1899–1982)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} thumb|<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Grube|first=George|date=October 1943|journal=Canadian Forum|volume=23}}</ref> '''Georges Maximilien Antoine Grube''' (2 August 1899 – 13 December 1982) was a Canadian scholar, university professor and democratic socialist political activist. Grube was a classicist and translator of Plato, Aristotle, Longinus and Marcus Aurelius. He was one of the founders of the New Democratic Party of Canada and ran unsuccessfully for election as an NDP candidate in Canadian federal elections.
==Biography== Grube was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on 2 August 1899,<ref name="Bio Dictionary"/> and was educated at King Edward's School in Birmingham, England.<ref name="Horn p56">Horn (1980), p. 56</ref><ref name="Times">"Final Tripos Lists", ''The Times'', 19 June 1922, p. 6.</ref> He served as a translator for the Belgian Army, attached to the British Expeditionary Force, during the First World War.<ref name="Star Obit"/> Following demobilisation in 1919 Grube studied the classics tripos at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and was awarded a first-class BA in 1922 and MA (Cantab) in 1925.<ref name="Bio Dictionary">Podlecki (1994), pp. 236-238</ref><ref name="Horn p56"/><ref name="Times"/>
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 (U of T).<ref name="Star Obit"/> He became the head of the classics department in 1931.<ref name="Horn p56"/> Grube was a socialist, and serving in World War I turned him into a passionate pacifist.<ref name="Horn p56"/> During his tenure at the U of T, he was involved in the Toronto branch of the League for Social Reconstruction (LSR), serving as president from 1934 to 1935.<ref name="Horn p56"/> When the LSR took control of the nearly bankrupt magazine, ''Canadian Forum'', Grube became its editor from 1937 to 1941.<ref name="Bio Dictionary"/> It was during his tenure at the magazine that it became the main media outlet for the LSR's publications.<ref name="Horn pp14,202">Horn (1980), pp. 14, 202</ref>
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.<ref name="Grube as prez">{{cite news|title=Drew flouting 48-hour order is C.C.F. charge|newspaper=The Toronto Daily Star|date=1945-11-26|author=Special to the Star|location=Toronto|page=17}}</ref><ref name=Winstar461212>{{cite news|title=C.C.F. asks liquor votes|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rCY_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=XE8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=3849%2C2860313|access-date=2011-08-21|newspaper=The Windsor Daily Star|date=1946-12-12|author=Star Staff|location=Windsor, Ontario|page=19}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Bio Dictionary"/>
In August 1961, he was one of the co-chairs presiding over the New Democratic Party's founding convention in Ottawa.<ref name="Bio Dictionary"/> In 1968, he won the Award of Merit from the American Philological Association (APA) for his 1965 book ''The Greek and Roman Critics''.<ref name="APA Award">{{cite news|title=U of T professor wins award|newspaper=The Toronto Daily Star|date=1968-01-06|author=City Bureau|location=Toronto|page=37}}</ref> The APA gave him the award for "outstanding contribution to classical scholarship."<ref name="APA Award"/> Two-years later, while still the head of the classics department, he retired from U of T in 1970.<ref name="Star Obit">{{cite news|title=George Grube, 83, pioneer in CCF|newspaper=Toronto Star|date=1982-12-15|location=Toronto|page=A19}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Star Obit"/>
==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== {{Reflist}}
==References== * {{cite book|last=Horn|first=Michiel|title=The League for Social Reconstruction: Intellectual origins of the democratic left in Canada, 1930–1942|url=https://archive.org/details/leagueforsocialr0000horn|url-access=registration|year=1980|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|isbn=0-8020-5487-0}} * {{cite book|last=Podlecki|first=Anthony J.|author-link=Anthony Podlecki|title=Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists|year=1994|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Wesport, Connecticut|isbn=0-313-24560-6|editor=Ward W. Briggs Jr.}}
==External links== {{Archival records|title=G. M. A. Grube and Gwenyth D. Grube fonds}}
* {{DBCS}} *[https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/grube-george-maximilian-antony-oral-history George Grube oral history interview] held at the [https://utarms.library.utoronto.ca/ University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Grube, George Maximilian Anthony}} Category:1899 births Category:1982 deaths Category:People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:Trinity College (Canada) alumni Category:Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Category:Classical scholars of the University of Toronto Category:Academic staff of the University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Science Category:People associated with Trinity College, Toronto