Harry L. Symons

{{Short description|Canadian writer}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Harry L. Symons

| birth_name = Harry Lutz Symons

| image =

| birth_date = 1893

| birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada

| death_date = 1962

| occupation = humorist, novelist, non-fiction writer

| period = 1940s-1960s

| nationality = Canadian

| notableworks = Ojibway Melody

| spouse =

| website =

}}

Harry Lutz Symons (1893 - 1962) was a Canadian writer, who won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1947 for Ojibway Melody,W. H. New, Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada. University of Toronto Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0802007619}}. p. 75. a volume of humorous essays about summer recreational life on Ontario's Georgian Bay.Lyn Harrington, Syllables of Recorded Time: The Story of the Canadian Authors Association 1921-1981. Dundurn Press, 1981. {{ISBN|0-88924-112-0}}.

His other works included Friendship (1943),University of Toronto Quarterly, Volume 13. University of Toronto Press, 1944. p. 358. Three Ships West (1949),The New International Year Book 1949. Dodd, Mead and Company, 1950. p. 85. The Bored Meeting (1951)"True truth". Saturday Night Volume 66, Part 2, 1951. and Orange Belt Special (1956), and the non-fiction works Fences (1958) and Playthings of Yesterday: Harry Symons introduces the Percy C. Band Collection (1963).

Symons, the son of architect William Limberry Symons,[https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/his-life-was-his-art-alas-it-was-not-a-masterpiece/article714137/?page=all "His life was his art. Alas, it was not a masterpiece"]. The Globe and Mail, February 27, 2009. was an ace fighter pilot in World War IH. Creagen, "H.L. Symons--Ace & Author," Canadian Aviation Historical Society Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Winter 1964), p. 113 and later worked in insurance"Prof. Lower's History Gets Vice-Regal Award". Winnipeg Tribune, April 19, 1947. and real estate.

His son Thomas Symons, a noted academic, founding president of Trent University, and former chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission,[http://www.trentu.ca/admin/library/archives/01-003.htm Symons, Thomas H. B., 1929-] Trent University credits the values expressed in Ojibway Melody with framing his career and contributing to Trent's decision to establish Canada's first university department in Indigenous Studies.Dick Bourgeois-Doyle, What's So Funny?: Lessons from Canada's Leacock Medal for Humour Writing. General Store Publishing House, 2015. {{ISBN|978-1-77123-342-2}}. p. 11 Another son, Scott Symons, was a writer whose 1967 novel Place d'Armes was the first gay-themed novel published in Canada.