The Dusty Bookcase

04 July 2017

Cover and Illustrations by Seth!

With just about a month until The Dusty Bookcase begins arriving in stores, it seems a good time to reveal the final cover design. I have Seth to thank for this and the interior illustrations.

I can also reveal that the book will be 368 pages – 64 more than first announced. More books, more dust!

The Dusty Bookcase is available for pre-order at Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, and McNally Robinson.

01 July 2017

'Canada to England, July 1st, 1917' by Horace Bray

A 100-year-old poem for the sesquicentennial, written during the dark days of the Great War by Horace Bray of Thamesview, Ontario. A rector's son, the poet enlisted in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force at the age of eighteen. He fought in the cavalry at the Ypres salient, and was badly wounded. After recovery, Bray joined the RAF. On July 9, 1918, he was killed in a mid-air collision over Shropshire, England.

This version of the poem is taken from John W. Garvin's anthology Canadian Poems of the Great War (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1918).

CANADA TO ENGLAND, JULY 1ST, 1917

We hold the pride You held — and now we give

New pride to add unto your garnered store,

New deeds beside the old ones, meet to live

And pass into our hearts forevermore.

We do not boast: but we are proud this day

That we have stood the stern and sudden test;

We too have done a little in the fray,

And we have given of our little best.

We too have lost the ones we held most dear,

And we are linked by a new bond of grief;

We too have fought against and mastered fear,

We have sought comfort of the same Belief.

Men called you great, and feared your anger just —

May we too know the strength of noble ire:

As all men honour you because they must,

Teach us to grasp a little of your fire.

Now we are proud, and thankful that the Day

That saw your testing, gave to us our trial,

To pay the debt our fathers fain would pay

And chalk the even score upon the dial.

Mother and daughters now may journey forth

Comrades in arms, along that better way

That comes with Peace, and things of nobler worth,

And brings the dawning of a brighter day.

Perchance in days gone by, we thought you cold —

You may have thought us childish still, and weak —

But now we know; we know your heart of Gold;

We know the things you felt and could not speak.

And you, mayhap, have learned a little too,

Of eager youth, impetuous to aid,

Impatient of delay, and quick to do,

Too young, too ignorant, to be afraid.

O little Mother of the Island Race!

O Mother-Mistress of the distant seas!

We heard your call, and proudly take our place

Now by your side, no longer at your knees!

Horace Edgar Kingsmill Bray
1896-1918
RIP

Two Hurrahs for the New Dominion

Charles G.D. Roberts' Dominion Day Collect

29 June 2017

More News from a Messy Desk in a Dusty Room

I wrote in the previous post that changes were afoot... and now they've begun. Starting this week, most new reviews of our suppressed, ignored, and forgotten will be posted at the Canadian Notes & Queries website. In fact, the first, of Kenneth Orvis's Cry Hallelujah!, went up just yesterday.

I've been researching Orvis on and off for three years now. A fascinating figure, he was born and raised in Montreal, yet I've not been able to find a single person who knew the man. Between 1956 and 1974, Orvis published a total of seven novels (he claimed the number was eight). Cry Hallelujah! stands out in that it doesn't focus on crime or espionage, but evangelism. Published in 1970, it followed his two biggest sellers, The Damned and the Destroyed (1962) and Night Without Darkness (1965), bombed terribly, and sent Orvis's career into a tailspin from which it never recovered.

You'll find my new review of this old book here:

'A Thriller Writer's Very Bad Career Move'

None of this is to say that this blog will disappear. I'll still be posting other things, including the occasional review of some old book or other. And, um, there's also The Dusty Bookcase – the book – coming from Biblioasis. Look for it in early August.

Related posts:

Kenneth Orvis: A Plea

Betting the House

'A Relentless Story of the Hell of Drug Addiction'

26 June 2017

News from a Messy Desk in a Dusty Room

The publication of The Dusty Bookcase – the book – approaches. I spent several hours last week going over copy edits, which is one reason there hasn't been much activity here. The second reason is that changes are afoot.

More anon.

Today, I wanted to announce the return to print of John Buell's The Pyx, the twelfth title in the Ricochet Books series. As series editor, I couldn't be more proud. To be honest, after Peregrine Acland's All Else is Folly, I never thought I'd be involved in the republication of so important a novel. First published in 1959 by no less a house than Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, The Pyx has been roundly praised. It enjoyed numerous editions and translations, remaining in print for over three decades. It was last published in 1991 by HarperCollins Canada – curiously, I've yet to encounter this edition.

The new Ricochet Books reissue features "A Reminiscence By Way of Introduction" by the author's former student Sean Kelly.

If you're knew to Ricochet, The Pyx is a great place to start. If you've been buying the series, thank you!