On Tuesday, while reporting on the fate of Al Purdy’s cottage, Q&Q contacted the famous poet’s old school, Trenton High School in Trenton, Ontario. According to physics teacher Eric Lorenzen, who recently dug out microfilm with the famous Canadian poet’s Grade 11 transcripts, Purdy had an average of 42.3 per cent and a grade of 54 per cent in English grammar. He dropped out in 1936, the document lists disinterested as his reason for leaving.

For the record, here are some other notable authors who left school in the past, according to Education Reform: H.G. Wells, Leon Uris, Jack London, Rod McKuen, Carl Sandburg, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare (supposedly), George Bernard Shaw and William Faulkner.