Milton Acorn is a writer whose colorful life is often at odds with his graceful poetry. His physical presence as an eccentric, awkward man is memorable, and many of his poems refer to his everpresent cigar, his disheveled appearance, and his constant flirtations with alcohol. Still, Acorn's private life should be seen as always second to his writing and to his devotion to the poetic vocation.

Acorn, the son of Robert, a customs agent, and Helen Carbonelle Acorn, was born and educated in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. His roots in the Island are essential to his work, but this fact does not prevent him from reshaping his past every time he recounts his biography. In "The People's Poet," published in 1976 in the mass-market magazine the Canadian, Stephen Kimber states, "By his own account he is descended from Bavarian devil worshippers, is part Micmac Indian, comes from a working-class...