William James Emberley (June 26, 1876 – June 10, 1937) of Bay de Verde, Newfoundland (now Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada). William son of Joseph Emberley and Jane Emberley (Russell) was a fisherman that experienced the hunger and plight of the Newfoundland fisherman during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The collapse of international markets made it difficult to sell fish at any price, and for years many Newfoundlanders lived on the government dole of six cents a day.
William adapted an older song to describe the plight of Newfoundland fishermen during the great Depression and called it Hard, Hard Times. Emberley's verses, which passed quickly into tradition, are a local application of a pattern established by an 18th-century English broadside which ridiculed certain trades and later was adapted often to describe hard times.
The Emberley version of Hard, Hard Times has been recorded by Dick Nolan, and was published in Edith Fowke's The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs, Harmondsworth, England, 1973).
| Persondata | |
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| Name | Emberley, William James |
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| Short description | |
| Date of birth | June 26, 1876 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | June 10, 1937 |
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Famous quotes containing the words william and/or james:
“Society has quite forsaken all her wicked courses,
Which empties our police courts, and abolishes divorces.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“We have grown literally afraid to be poor. We despise anyone who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. If he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street, we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition.”
—William James (1842–1910)