Scott was born on August 1, 1899, in Quebec City, the sixth of seven children. His father was Frederick George Scott, "an Anglican priest, minor poet and staunch advocate of the civilizing tradition of imperial Britain, who instilled in his son a commitment to serve mankind, a love for the regenerative balance of the Laurentian landscape and a firm respect for the social order."[1] He witnessed the riots in the city during the Conscription Crisis of 1917.
Scott returned to Canada, settled in Montreal, studied law at McGill University, and eventually joined the law faculty as a professor. While at McGill, Scott became a member of the Montreal Group of modernist poets, a circle that also included Leon Edel, John Glassco, and A. J. M. Smith.[2]
Scott and Smith became lifelong friends.[1] Scott contributed to the McGill Daily Literary Supplement, which Smith edited; when that folded in 1925, he and Smith founded and edited the McGill Fortnightly Review. After the Review folded, Scott helped found and briefly co-edited The Canadian Mercury.[citation needed] Scott, assisted by Smith and Leo Kennedy, also anonymously edited the modernist poetry anthology New Provinces (in which he published ten poems), which was published in 1936.[3]
The Great Depression greatly disturbed Scott; he founded the League for Social Reconstruction (LSR) with the historian Frank Underhill to advocate socialist solutions in a Canadian context. Through the LSR, Scott became an influential figure in the Canadian socialist movement. He was a founding member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and a contributor to that party's Regina Manifesto. He also edited a book advocating Social Planning for Canada (1935).[1] In 1943, he co-authored Make This Your Canada, which spelled out the CCF national programme, with David Lewis. Scott was elected national chairman of the CCF in 1942, and would serve until 1950.[1]
In March 1942 Scott co-founded a literary magazine, Preview, with the Montreal poet Patrick Anderson. Like the earlier Montreal Group publications, "Preview's orientation was cosmopolitan; its members looked largely towards the English poets of the 1930s for inspiration."[4]
In 1950–1951, Scott cofounded Recherches sociales, a study group concerned with French–English relations. He began translating French-Canadian poetry.[1]
In 1952, he served as a United Nations technical assistance resident representative in Burma to help build a socialist state in that country.[1]
Scott began translating French-Canadian poetry and published Anne Hébert and Saint-Denys Garneau in 1962. He edited Poems of French Canada (1977), which won the Canada Council prize for translation.
Scott opposed Quebec's Bill 22 and Bill 101, which established the province within its jurisdiction as an officially-unilingual province within an officially-bilingual country.
After his death on January 30, 1985, Scott was interred in Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal.
Scott is the subject of a number of critical works, as well as a major biography, The Politics of the Imagination: A Life of F. R. Scott by Sandra Djwa.
Canada Today: A Study of Her National Interests and National Policy – 1938
Canada's Role in World Affairs – 1942
Make This Your Canada: A Review of C.C.F. History and Policy – 1943 (with David Lewis)
Cooperation for What? United States and British Commonwealth – 1944
The World War Against Poverty – 1953 (with R. A. MacKay and A. E. Ritchie)
What Does Labour Need in a Bill of Rights – 1959
The Canadian Constitution and Human Rights – 1959
Civil Liberties and Canadian Federalism – 1959
Dialogue sur la traduction – 1970 (with Anne Hebert)
Essays on the Constitution: Aspects of Canadian Law and Politics – 1977
Scott, Frank R. (1986). A New Endeavour: Selected Political Essays, Letters, and Addresses. Edited and introduced by Michiel Horn. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN0-8020-5672-5.
Six Montreal Poets. New York: Folkways Records, 1957. Includes A. J. M. Smith, Leonard Cohen, Irving Layton, F. R. Scott, Louis Dudek, and A. M. Klein. (cassette, 60 mins)
Canadian Poets on Tape. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1969, 1971. (cassette, 30 mins)
A Poetry Reading. Toronto: League of Canadian Poets, 1982. (cassette, 60 mins)
Celebration: Famous Canadian Poets CD London, Ontario: Canadian Poetry Association — 1999 ISBN1-55253-022-1 (CD#4) (with James Reaney )
Except where noted, discographical information courtesy Canadian Poetry Online.[7]