Author Archives: JK

Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club

by JK

My tour of many clubs as a performer reached new heights here. We had to close the curtains in my lecture hall, otherwise the audience would have been mesmerized, as I was, by the skaters whizzing by to the west, and the curlers scrubbing excitedly to the east. Some of the best figure skaters in the world train here (under staff like Brian Orser) and on a scouting mission before my show I watched a coach use a training harness (like a giant fishing rod dangling above the skater’s head) as the young skater tried a new, tricky, unfamiliar jump.

The evening went well, with Jane selling many copies of my book, some of them via a club chit system swiftly organized by her cousin, the admirable Doug Knights, the club’s manager.

Stories About Storytellers Companion Reading (#7)

by JK

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 The Game by Ken Dryden, and this we’re featuring . . .

Where the Wagon Led: One Man’s Memories of the Cowboy’s Life in the Old West, by R.D. Symons (1973)

The success of War Horse, both the movie and the play, reminds me that my very first author, R.D. Symons, wrote about his experiences with horses at the front in the First World War. Here is what he wrote in Where the Wagon Led: One Man’s Memories of the Cowboy’s Life in the Old West: “A lot of horses couldn’t take the shock of high explosive shells, and we’d often find one dead after a bombardment, without a scratch on him. One early morning when I went to the transport horse lines I found the colonel’s mount – a good horse, too – dead as mutton, and the nearest shell had exploded over a hundred yards away. I suppose his heart had just stopped with the fright.”

And later . . .  “Yet the smell of our own horses, live horses, always had a steadying effect on me. It somehow seemed to make a sense of sanity in a world otherwise quite mad. I’d often linger at the horse lines after evening ‘stables’ just to talk to our wagon teams and get the mingled smell of horses and hay and oats as the nags munched away. Sometimes the transport sergeant would stick around, too. He had been a cowboy in Alberta, and we’d talk about horses, and it was he who said one night, as a star shell burst over German lines. ‘Gee, don’t that look like the shooting stars we used to watch on night herd!’”

Bob Symons writes of a cavalry charge that he saw close up, when Australian Cavalry went at the German lines “at full gallop, and with drawn swords”:
“It wasn’t long before we saw the boys, still with drawn swords, herding a bunch of prisoners in our direction. . . .
“The way was now open for our infantry, and we soon moved forward, doing what we could for the cavalry casualties till the stretcher-bearers got into action. When a couple of our Canadian boys stopped to put a field dressing on one young chap, the only thing he said to them was ‘Is my horse all right, mate?’ They didn’t know, but someone said, ‘He sure is, Digger.'”

For Doug’s tales of R.D. Symons see 43-50 of Stories About Storytellers.

Storytelling at the Royal Ontario Museum

by JK

I was contacted out of the blue by the ROM, asking if I, a storyteller, born in Scotland, could come to their “Celtic Weekend” as a “Scottish Storyteller.” I said that I knew some good Scottish stories, so, yes, could come along and tell them to a mixed audience of kids and parents.

A few days later, they were back with a further inquiry. This was a Celtic weekend, so could I tell Irish and Welsh stories, too. A little research provided good stories, so I said yes, and we were all set for two 40-minute sessions, at 12:00 and at 2:00.

I sat on a throne-like chair in front of a collection of movable stools occupied by a group of kids, who included my grandchildren Lindsay (7) and Alistair (5). When I told the Irish story, about Niall of the Nine Hostages who was “The Slave Woman’s Son,” I prefaced it with a word or two about slaves in different cultures, and unwisely referred to the Haida totem pole in the space just outside our room. I explained that a visit to the Haida Museum in Skidegate reveals that the Haida were sea-raiders who took slaves, which allowed them to have a slave-supported leisure society that could create great poetry and great art, like totem poles.

This was too much for Lindsay, who dragged Jane off to see the nearby pole, from top to bottom, then loudly returned to interrupt my tale-weaving with the words “What did I miss, Grandad?”

For future reference, the Welsh tale was about “The Lady from the Lake” and the Scottish one (where Alistair proudly told his neighbours, “I know this one. I know what happens.”) was “The Good Man Of Ballangeich,” about a king passing secretly among his people, doing mediaeval public opinion surveys in a very informal way.

Just before the second show, Jane and I were roaming around the main floor of the ROM, where an all-woman Celtic band was playing fine traditional music. When they paused to ask for a song from anyone in the audience, Jane asked them if they knew the old Irish song “The Wild Rover.” When they said yes, and invited her to start singing, she demurred, saying, “Not me, him!” and thrust me forward.

So it came about that the main floor resounded to three verses of me singing “The Wild Rover” while the audience joined loudly in the chorus “And it’s no, nay, never (CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP) No, nay never no more . . .” Etcetera.

And then as I took my bow, still blushing in disbelief, the PA system cut in to announce that “The Celtic Storytelling Session is just about to begin on the fourth floor” and I had to rush off. Believe it or not, some of the audience actually followed me upstairs, for my second storytelling session.

So clearly my resume has to be updated, to include the sacred title “Celtic Storyteller.” I think we’ll leave out the entry about Irish drinking songs.

Editing Tips from Douglas Gibson (#13)

by JK

In this recurring feature, 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 #13
Recent experience with Alice Munro’s new collection, Dear Life, reminds me that the editor of a short story collection has the advantage of seeing a collection of stories in “real time,” the present, while they may have been created years apart. Links and contrasts between stories may leap out to the reader/editor, while they come from different years, perhaps even different eras, in the writer’s life.

Missed the previous tips? Check out Tip #1, Tip #2, Tip #3,  Tip #4, Tip #5, Tip #6, Tip #7, Tip #8,  Tip #9,  Tip #10, Tip #11, and Tip #12.

Praise for Stories About Storytellers onstage from William Thomas

by JK

After Doug’s show at the Readings at the Roselawn Series in Port Colborne on February 23, 2012, series director William Thomas offered the following praise:

“Doug Gibson, the pre-eminent editor, mentor and friend to the giants of Canadian literature has created a riveting, revealing, oh-so-personal one-man stage presentation honouring the icons of our cultural zenith.

With cartoonist Tony Jenkins’ brilliant and impish caricatures of Gibson’s cast of characters in the background, Doug performs a moving, enlightening and very funny tribute to the likes of some of our greatest writers and some of our most controversial Prime Ministers.
It’s “CanLit to the power of one” with touching behind the scenes stories and juicy once-secret exchanges –it’s brilliant and beyond the expectations of the audience.

As host of Readings at the Roselawn in Port Colborne, I have introduced almost every great Canadian writer over the past 20 years. And though I do remember a handful of standing ovations, I have never seen 300 people leap from their seats so fast and stay on their feet so long. Good on you, Doug – the editor who is outshining his stable of stars.”

Stories About Storytellers Companion Reading (#6)

by JK

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 Paddle to the Amazon by Don Starkell, and this we’re featuring . . .

The Game by Ken Dryden (1983)

The CBC Canada Reads competition was won last year by my friend Terry Fallis and his political satire The Best Laid Plans. (Try to catch up with it and its successor, The High Road. Terry has a gift for easy, funny writing with distinct and memorable characters who make the events of the plot fly by, with the good guys winning in the end. Yay! And this fall there will be a new Terry Fallis book, Up and Down, also edited by yours truly.)

This year I had hopes that books edited by me would win Canada Reads two years in a row, since Ken Dryden’s The Game was a hot contender. My emotions were split, because I was the publisher (although not the editor) of my good friend Dave Bidini’s book On a Cold Road. But when Dave’s book fell by the wayside in the harsh voting, I was able to root wholeheartedly for the book that Ken and I worked on way back in 1983.

Looking at my copy today, I’m impressed by the confidence that led me to write on the book’s back cover, “You are about to read one of the best books ever written about any sport.” I still believe that to be true. And I remember that the late Trent Frayne wrote in the Globe that it was “the sports book of the year, and of the decade, and even of the century!”

Ken and I (as readers of my book know) are such good friends that I was able to play a practical joke on him, involving a Preston Manning imitation. I am still touched by what he wrote in my copy of The Game: “For Doug . . . We have gone through a lot for a long time. I hope you’re as satisfied with the end result as I am. Thank you for all your help and patience.”

I’m delighted that Canada Reads (and Ken’s book lost narrowly in the last round, although it won the popular vote) has brought The Game to the attention of a whole new generation of readers.

For Doug’s tales of Ken Dryden (including his Preston Manning prank) see 311-314 of Stories About Storytellers.

An excerpt on Hugh MacLennan on the Canadian Encyclopedia blog

by JK

Enjoy another selection of Stories About Storytellers at the Canadian Encyclopedia blog. In this excerpt you’ll find nose biting, Einstein, and bootleggers, all thanks to Hugh MacLennan. To read the excerpt, head over to theCanadian Encyclopedia.

(Have you missed the previous excerpts? You can still read the selections on Peter C. Newman, Robert Hunter, Charles Ritchie, Val Ross, Jack Hodgins, Peter Gzowski, R.D. Symons, James Houston, Morley Callaghan,  Paul Martin, Barry Broadfoot, Brian Mulroney, Mavis Gallant, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau,  Stephen Leacock and Alice Munro.)

Stories About Storytellers Companion Reading (#5)

by JK

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, Doug reflected on The Golden Spruce by John Valiant, and this he features . . .

Paddle to the Amazon, by Don Starkell (1987)

Paddle to the Amazon brought me in touch with the amazing Don Starkell. I was saddened when Don passed away some weeks ago, in Winnipeg, his home town. Readers of the best adventure travel books know that it was in Winnipeg that Don put an open canoe in the Red River, with his two teenage sons, and paddled it all the way to Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon. Along the way they took on the whole Mississippi, drug smugglers, sharks, alligators, drought, starvation  and sickness, and benefitted from the kindness of strangers.

One of his sons (the sensible one) quit when they were being swamped again and again by incoming waves broadsiding them as they crept along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Yet Don and young Dana kept going, completing the longest canoe trip in history. And the book (assisted by the editorial hand of Charles Wilkins)  still provides very exciting reading. A real classic.

Later Don found it hard to settle back into everyday life, and devised another adventure . . . taking a kayak north from Churchill at the base of Hudson Bay all the way through the Northwest Passage, dragging the kayak across the ice when the sea froze. He almost made it unscathed, and lived to write Paddle to the Arctic, another classic.

I thought that he was super-human, and would live forever. But when he struggled out to attend my show in Winnipeg in October, it was clear that the cancer was winning. Still, he was in many ways super-human. I am very glad that, like all authors, he found a way to cheat death.

For Doug’s tales of Don Starkell see pages 178 and 268-269 of Stories About Storytellers.

Editing Tips from Douglas Gibson (#12)

by JK

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 #12

Leonard Lee, of Lee Valley Tools, once startled an Editors’ Association of Canada meeting by announcing that editors proofreading the vitally important catalogue on which his company depended were instructed to read each line backwards, comparing it with the original. It was a striking affirmation of just how unreliable most of us are in this task. Our eyes and our brains fill in the missing letters or words, or see what they expect to sea. The trick is to proofread assuming that there are indeed mistakes hidden there, and that the text is guilty until proven innocent.

Missed the previous tips? Check out Tip #1, Tip #2, Tip #3,  Tip #4, Tip #5, Tip #6, Tip #7, Tip #8,  Tip #9,  Tip #10, and Tip #11.

An excerpt on Peter C. Newman on the Canadian Encyclopedia blog

by JK

Enjoy another selection of Stories About Storytellers at the Canadian Encyclopedia blog. In this week’s selection, find out what caused Gibson’s boss to utter, “That bastard Newman! You can’t ever trust him!”  and Gibson to decide he was “a man who bore watching” and that “watching him was a lot of fun.” To read the excerpt, head over to the Canadian Encyclopedia.

(Have you missed the previous excerpts? You can still read the selections on Robert Hunter, Charles Ritchie, Val Ross, Jack Hodgins, Peter Gzowski, R.D. Symons, James Houston, Morley Callaghan,  Paul Martin, Barry Broadfoot, Brian Mulroney, Mavis Gallant, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau,  Stephen Leacock and Alice Munro.)