Your weekly dose of Stories About Storytellers continues at the Canadian Encyclopedia blog. This week, Doug presents W.O. Mitchell, performer and mischief maker. To read the excerpt, head over to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
(Have you missed the previous excerpts? You can still read the selections on Morley Callaghan, Paul Martin, Barry Broadfoot, Brian Mulroney, Mavis Gallant, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau, Stephen Leacock and Alice Munro.)
Writer, editor and journalist Jonathan Webb praised Douglas Gibson’s stage show on his blog otherpeoplesbooks. Webb, notes
Gibson has transformed his memories of literary acquaintances over the course of a lifetime into an infinitely expandable performance. It’s a trick he learned from the best. . . . He’s happy to impart secrets. The audience of more than fifty at the Bookshelf in Guelph on Friday night was pleased to be taken into his confidence. They came away with a bit of insight into how books are made. They heard a number of good stories. And they were treated to a masterful performance, a life turned into art.
Read the rest of the review here.
What book would Douglas Gibson like everyone to read that he didn’t publish? He’s already mentioned The Golden Spruce, but he had another suggestion for the CBC Books team. Head over to their site to see why Doug thinks you should read A Good Man by Guy Vanderhaeghe.
Thanks to Candida Paltiel at Mining Stories Productions and her team, we’ll be featuring weekly snippets of Doug’s one-man stage show. In this week’s clip, we see Doug talking about Stephen Leacock.
For upcoming performances of Stories About Storytellers the show, head to the events page. For more on Stephen Leacock, see chapter 1 of Stories About Storytellers.
Many early readers of Stories About Storytellers have remarked that they finish reading it only to rush to pick up one of the other books Doug has so lovingly described. So to make it easier, this recurring feature revisits some of those books and reminds you why they’re worth a read. Last time, we revisited Man Descending by Guy Vanderhaeghe, and this we’re featuring . . .
The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant (2005)
Not only did I fail to edit this book, I failed to publish it. But in my book I mention it as One That Got Away.
That’s because my visit to James Houston’s cottage in Haida Gwaii (then the Queen Charlotte Islands) had left me so impressed that I had a proprietorial view of the islands, and their stories. So if I had caught wind of the fact that an unknown Vancouver writer was at work on a book about the legendary golden spruce that had been felled at night by a confused conservationist making an obscure point (then disappearing at sea, before his trial exposed him to the wrath of the Haida nation) I would have snapped it up, sight unseen.
Not that the book suffered by being published elsewhere, going on to win the Governor-General’s Award, and just about every other non-fiction prize available. I’ve since visited the scene of the crime, and am sad to report that the once-golden spruce (a freak of nature that made it a source of reverence to the Haida people) is now a grey, shrunken felled tree rotting away quietly in the water where it fell. But the book, which encompasses a history of the Haida, and of the islands, and of resource logging in B.C., is a superb piece of work.
For Doug’s tales of Haida Gwaii see 176-178 of Stories About Storytellers.
Stories About Storytellers has been positively reviewed in the Literary Review of Canada. Reviewer John Burns writes,
“Relives in 21 chapters the (few) perils and (many) pleasures of life in Canadian publishing. It is filled with markers of not just editorial diligence . . . but also a life well lived: friends drawn around a well-fortified table, scenes of children (Gibson’s and authors) playing soccer under indulgent supervision, much travel and adventure (usually to badger authors or celebrate their wins — or both) and even more hijinks. . . .
Let us celebrate Gibson’s enthusiasms. . . . [and] Gibson’s gleeful encounters with Hugh MacLennan, Morley Callaghan, W.O.Mitchell, Pierre Trudeau, Robertson Davies, Peter Gzowski and others – all dead now, all fixed in the amber of the past.
Gibson is too bright, too spirited and too gentlemanly to prefer the past merely for its own sake. His is a straining intelligence, ever onward, as these accounts plainly show. . . .
With this book he reveals a little of the ugly duckling turned swan himself.”
Stories About Storytellers has been positively reviewed in the Guelph Mercury. Reviewer Veronica Ross writes,
“This is a delightful book. I have fallen in love with it and keep dipping into it all the time. I could kiss its delightful face . . .”
Read the rest of the review here.
You’ve already seen him on the page and on the stage, but Mining Stories Productions wants to bring Gibson and his storytellers to the screen. Director Candida Paltiel is at work on a documentary that will look at the relationships between publisher, authors, and the country they live in. Have a look at the trailer for an overview or the project and some tantalizing glimpses of Gibson’s one-man show:
More info on the documentary is available here.
Thanks to Candida and her team, we’ll also feature vignettes on various authors for the next few weeks, giving you a taste of the stage show and the documentary to come.
Every two weeks we’re sharing tips for editors from the desk of Douglas Gibson. Good for those starting out or old hands who need a reminder, these reminders form an engaging guide for sharp-eyed wordsmiths.
Tip #6
When an author is struggling to write a book, a shrewd editorial trick is to ask the struggler to come up with the book’s title and subtitle. This tends to concentrate the author’s mind, and to give both a destination and a course towards it.
Missed the previous tips? Check out Tip #1, Tip #2, Tip #3, Tip #4, and Tip #5.
Enjoy another selection from Stories About Storytellers at the Canadian Encyclopedia blog. This week, Doug remembers reading a new Morley Callaghan manuscript under the author’s close supervision. To read the excerpt, head over to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
(Have you missed the previous excerpts? You can still read the selections on Paul Martin, Barry Broadfoot, Brian Mulroney, Mavis Gallant, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau, Stephen Leacock and Alice Munro.)
Douglas Gibson 