Weaver, Robert, 1921- : Robert Weaver, radio producer, editor, anthologist, was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and educated at the University of Toronto, where he edited the college magazine The Undergrad and wrote reviews. After his graduation he joined the CBC in 1948 and became supervisor of the "Canadian Short Stories" and "Critically Speaking" series produced by the CBC's Department of Talks and Public Affairs.
In 1954 Weaver created and became producer of the CBC's weekly half-hour literary programme "Anthology", with which he remained associated for the next thirty years. In 1974 Weaver was named Head of CBC Radio Arts while the writer and producer Howard Engel took over "Anthology", but in 1978 Weaver resumed responsibility for his programme, where he remained until his retirement in 1985 when the programme was cancelled. In 1979 Weaver organized the first annual CBC Literary Competition, which solicited unpublished poetry, short story and drama manuscripts from writers across Canada and awarded substantial prizes to the winners. In 1993, the magazine Saturday Night co-sponsored the literary competition; in 1994 the Tilden Company also became a sponsor, and the awards were renamed the Tilden Canadian Literary Awards. The awards are now given for short stories, personal essays and poetry.
Weaver was one of the founding editors of the literary journal Tamarack Review, published in Toronto between 1956 and 1981. His co-editors included William Toye and Ivon Owen, of Oxford University Press, and writer and fellow anthologist John Robert Colombo. Weaver published an anthology of contributions to the Tamarack Review, called The First Five Years, in 1962. He is also the editor, or co-editor, of a number of collections of short stories published between 1952 and 1991 by Oxford University Press under the title Canadian Short Stories. As well, Weaver edited Ten For Wednesday Night, Small Wonders and Anthology Anthology, collections of short stories first broadcast on the CBC. In 1974 he edited a collection of short stories by Mavis Gallant for the New Canadian Library Series.
Over the years, Weaver has written many book reviews and articles on Canadian literature. His early work appeared in the Canadian Forum and Nathan Cohen's Critic. He wrote frequently for Saturday Night between 1959 and 1972, and in 1988 became its fiction editor. Between 1959 and 1979 he reviewed mystery novels for the Toronto Star. He also wrote regularly for Maclean's between 1969 and 1971.
Weaver was a founding member of the Canadian book club called the Readers Club of Canada, organized by Peter Martin and Arnold Edinborough and others in 1959. He was on the panel of judges that chose the monthly selections for the book club and he wrote book reviews for the club's newsletter, The Canadian Reader, from 1959 to 1980.
Robert Weaver has received honorary degrees from both Brock University and York University. In 1975 he was awarded the Diplôme d'honneur by the Canadian Conference of the Arts and the John Drainie Award by ACTRA. In 1980 he received the prestigious Molson Prize and in 1994 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arts Foundation of Greater Toronto. A number of well-known Canadian writers have acknowledged Weaver's help by dedicating books to him, including Alice Munro, Austin Clarke, Hugh Hood, Al Purdy, Hugh Garner, Alden Nowlan and Mordecai Richler.
