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14 May 2018
13 May 2018
Verse for Mother's Day by Dorothy Livesay's Mum
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Florence Randal Livesay 1874 - 1953 RIP |
Florence Randal Livesay was a good mother.
This verse is one of four Florence Randal Livesay poems included in editor John W. Garvin's Canadian Poems of the Great War (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1918):
Being the the hundredth since the end of the Great War, I couldn't let this Mother's Day pass without acknowledging the fact and adding this verse by Isabel Ecclestone Mackay, which is also taken from Canadian Poems of the Great War:
War is over if you want it.
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07 May 2018
The Dustiest Bookcase: A is for Adams
Short pieces on books I've always meant to review (but haven't).
They're in storage as we build our new home.
Patience, please.
S: Portrait of a Spy
Ian Adams
Toronto: Virgo, 1981
196 pages
I wrote a great deal about S: Portrait of a Spy in my first book Character Parts, which is pretty much the reason I haven't covered it here. An intriguing novel of political intrigue concerning a member of the RCMP who is suspected of being both a KGB and CIA mole, S generated headlines through my college years. Most came courtesy of Toronto Sun publisher Peter Worthington, who pushed the idea that Leslie James Bennett, former head to the RCMP's Russian Intelligence Service Desk, was the model for the title character. Worthington encouraged Bennett to sue, which is exactly what he did, going after Adams and original publisher Gage for $2.2 million.
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S: Portrait of Spy Ian Adams Toronto: Gage, 1979 |
"A curious resolution, as the disclaimer republished the alleged libel even as it discredited it," noted lawyer Douglas J. Johnson.
Agreed.
The Virgo edition also includes a good deal of information on Bennett, much of it gleaned through court testimony. Transcripts are provided.
Bennett described Adams' novel as "a typical KGB-type operation" and went so far as to claim that his life was under threat from an RCMP "death squad."
He died in Melbourne of kidney failure on 18 October 2003, four days after the publication of Character Parts. I deny any responsibility.
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01 May 2018
Packing Up the Dusty Bookcase(s)
Never done that before.
Packing up my collection of obscure, not-so-obscure, and quite common Canadian literature – all 3895 books – has become a depressing chore. So many I've been meaning to read remain unopened; so many I'd planned on reviewing here remain untouched. Leading this sad parade is Turf Smoke, John Coulter's lone novel, published in 1945 by Ryerson.
Who remembers that John Coulter wrote a novel?
Who remembers John Coulter?
Once our foremost playwright, I first encountered his name in a university course titled Introduction to Canadian Drama. Coulter's big play, Riel, was assigned but couldn't be read because it wasn't in print. Instead, we studied an excerpt that had been included in The Penguin Book of Modern Canadian Drama, Volume One (Toronto: Penguin, 1984).
There has never been a Volume Two.
I've always been drawn to novels more than drama, which explains how it was that in 1985 I spent four dollars, over half my hourly wage at Sam the Record Man, on this first and only edition of Coulter's first and only novel. I suppose it says something about my reaction to Riel that I've still not read Turf Smoke.
I'm being horribly ungrateful because it was in packing and unpacking Turf Smoke that the idea of a series focussed on forgotten Canadian writing by forgotten Canadian writers first took hold. If my count is correct, my copy has survived fourteen moves, and has twice made it to Vancouver and back. This move, nearly all of my books will be packed away until our new home is built. There'll be no more scanning the shelves in the wee hours, standing in semi-darkness, wondering what next to read.
Decisions must be made now!
And so I find myself putting aside books I hope to reading over the next eighteen months, while boxing up others.
Coulter's novel didn't make the cut. Yesterday, it joined my Ronald Cocking collection, my H.A. Cody collection, my Ralph Connor collection, and a pristine copy of Prelude to a Marriage: Letters & Diaries of John Coulter & Olive Clare Primrose (Ottawa: Oberon, 1979) in a box destined for storage.
Packing it away for the fifteenth time, Turf Smoke inspired a sub-series, The Dustiest Bookcase, which will focus on forgotten books I've long meant to read and review (but haven't).
The Dustiest Bookcase appear from time to time until we've built our new home and I unpack Turf Smoke.
I vow to read it when I do.
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John Coulter 1888 - 1980 RIP |
Labels:
Coulter,
Dustiest Bookcase,
Oberon,
Penguin Books,
Plant,
Ryerson Press
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