Accession UAA-1973-065 - UAA-1973-065

Frederick Millet Salter was born on 13 May 1895 in Canada. Salter worked as a coal miner in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He completed his BA at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia in 1916 and completed an AM degree at the University of Chicago in Illinois in 1922.

After finishing his degree, from 1922 to 1924, Salter was a lecturer in English at the University of Alberta. He then went on to be a lecturer and curator for the Chaucer Laboratory at the University of Chicago from 1926-1928. In 1930, Salter was an assistant professor of English at Oklahoma A&M College before becoming an English teacher at Northeast Junior College in Kansas City in 1931. In 1932 Salter became a Henry E. Huntington Library International Research Fellow. Salter became a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in the field of Medieval Literature in 1938.

In 1939, Salter became a faculty member at the U of A in the Department of English, becoming Head in the early 1950s. Salter established Canada’s first creative writing course in 1939, the year he became a U of A faculty member.

Salter published several works in his career including articles in Modern Language Notes, Times Literary Supplement, Malone Society Studies, Review of English Studies and Philosophical Quarterly. Salter also authored Medieval Drama in Chester.

Salter passed away on 22 August 1962. In 1988, the U of A established the F. M. Salter Lecture on Language. Salter was named one of the 100 Edmontonians of the Century in 2005, as someone who made a significant impact on the development of the community of Edmonton, Alberta.