He was an active member of various literary societies, and was the force behind the establishment of the Canadian Writers’ Foundation to help needy authors.
Edgar left Upper Canada College to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he earned a PhD in 1897.
[1] The poet Duncan Campbell Scott (1862–1947) was a close friend of Pelham Edgar, and they maintained a correspondence for more than fifty years, starting in the 1890s.
[6] Scott and Edgar traveled together in Northern Ontario in 1906 on an expedition to make treaties with the Native Americans.
[7] In the 1900s Edgar and Scott were invited to edit the Makers of Canada series of historical biographies published by George Morang.
Edgar had edited a selection of writings by Francis Parkman (1823–1893), but was more interested by the picturesque than the historical elements.
[10] When judging the poetry competition of 1904 Edgar was struck by the work of Marjorie Pickthall (1883–1922), and advised her on her poems.
[11] In 1920 he invited the poet E. J. Pratt (1882–1964), then a demonstrator-lecturer in psychology at the university, to join the faculty of the Department of English.
[12] Raymond Knister wanted to dedicate his My Star Predominant to Edgar, who he said had first awoken his interest in poetry.
Coburn says of a 1928 course by Edgar on English Romantic poetry, that he introduced "... the whole business of the imagination, for me a first glimmering notion, the first articulation of something felt but never expressed."
In 1936 he received the Royal Society's Lorne Pierce Medal for distinguished service to Canadian literature.
[3] A description of Edgar around 1926 said, "He was then in his middle fifties, tall and spare, with piercing dark eyes under thick eyebrows and a wealth of lustrous black hair.
[3] He was among the founders of the Canadian Authors Association, which first met on 12 March 1921 in the Old Medical Building of McGill University.
The Society decided to retain its charter, but hoped to find a way to merge with the Association's Toronto branch.
[21] He became the first president of the Association of Canadian Bookmen in 1936, an organization dedicated to supporting the booksellers and distributors in Canada.
[17] The first beneficiary of the Writers Foundation was Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, who had followed the custom of the time in selling his books outright to publishers.
[25] Northrop Frye, who became a professor of the English department, edited a collection of his essays for posthumous publication.