While in Ottawa this fall, Douglas Gibson did an interview with Nigel Beale of LiteraryTourist.com. The conversation covers, “[Gibson’s] careers and roles as editor and publisher, about the best Canadian fiction, luck and a system that encourages Canadian writing, olympic gold, the difficulty of literary prizes, subjective judgement, and the most important paragraph of Canadian fiction ever published.”
Listen to the interview here.
Your weekly dose of Stories About Storytellers continues at the Canadian Encyclopedia blog. This week, Doug tells tales of R.D. Symons, a real Canadian cowboy, and the first author Doug discovered, edited, and published. To read the excerpt, head over to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
(Have you missed the previous excerpts? You can still read the selections on James Houston, Morley Callaghan, Paul Martin, Barry Broadfoot, Brian Mulroney, Mavis Gallant, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau, Stephen Leacock and Alice Munro.)
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, Doug talks about Hugh MacLennan.
For upcoming performances of Stories About Storytellers the show, head to the events page. For more on Hugh MacLennan, see chapter 2 of Stories About Storytellers.
Day One, Sarnia:
The day starts with a fine interview with Allan Gregg at TVO. The make-up woman tells me that high-definition has altered the rules for TV make-up. No more pancake trowelled on to conceal wrinkles, since every trowel mark shows up. So instead of trying soft-focus tricks, you blast maximum light at the face, with the fierce reflection preventing detail from showing up. Who knew? Now I do, and so do you.
Jane picks me up from the studio around noon, and we set off for Sarnia. After sharing the driving, as always, we make it to The Book Keeper, impressively run by my old M&S sales colleague friend, Susan Chamberlin. Chatting at the front of the store we meet a man coming in, clutching a newspaper clipping about me. He can’t make it to the theatre that night, but I sign a book for him, clinching the sale. Two more in-store sales happen, by happy chance.
After a desktop take-out meal with Susan, we made it to the downtown Library Theatre. All goes well, and 29 books are sold and signed. It’s great to sell my book and to help out worthy independents like Susan, who did a remarkable job in producing posters to promote my event. I see a framed one in my future.
We stayed overnight with our Sarnia friends Sue Brighton and Chris Curran. Morning dawned to show that we were right beside Lake Huron, and we had a stroll along the beach.
Day Two, London:
Arrived in time to visit the Oxford Bookshop, en route to lunch with one of Jane’s cousins. Then on to our friends’ home where we’ll spend the night. (Hey, this is a book tour, where every penny counts!) We leave Nick and Anne’s downtown place after dinner, and find the Wolf Hall Theatre in the main library. The stage is enormous, with the screen very close to the front of the stage, but by now the old pro can adapt to almost anything.
The performance goes well, with the help of a very sound sound man, and Mark, the bookseller, is pleased to sell around 25 copies. Sheila Li, of the London Library System, does a fine job of introducing me, and arranging a Q&A session. Afterwards, I sign for some people I know, and a friend of Alice Munro’s. Alice is well-known here, where she studied for two years.
To get from Ottawa to Montreal on a Sunday morning for brunch (after an evening event) requires you to catch a 5:45 a.m. flight. No comment.
Fortunately the Paragraphe Books and Brunch event at the Sheraton was well worth a little lost sleep. I spoke last, after David Gilmour (who was mysteriously unable to join the rest of us at the Authors’ Table), then David A. Wilson (who ended his talk about his book on D’Arcy McGee with a penny-whistle rendering of a lament for his death) then Kathy Dobson, the author of With a Closed Fist (about growing up tough in “the Point”). I talked about three Montreal authors in my book, Hugh MacLennan, Mavis Gallant, and Pierre Trudeau, who almost killed me right outside the doors of the Sheraton. The audience liked that idea.
After a chat with my friend Simon Dardick, who runs Véhicule Press, I went off to Le Salon du Livre. This extraordinary exhibition of Quebec literary culture attracts hundreds of thousands over a long November weekend. They line up, pay an entrance fee, then roam around to look at publisher’s booths, where they pay full price for any book that catches their eye. There may, or may not, be an author on hand to sign their copy, but the sense of literary excitement is palpable.
Attendance should be compulsory for all Toronto publishers. I used to attend as often as possible, and this year I was hosted by my old friend, Rene Bonenfant, who chairs the event. I also saw my one of my favourite authors, Yves Beauchemin, who signed a copy of his new novel to me, telling me to “keep on going!” And I met a number of publishing friends, including Erwan Leseul, who had just launched the French edition of Trudeau Transformed, the book by Max and Monique Nemni that I published in English. I was delighted to find that the authors, in the French edition, had described me as “un editeur chevronné.”
I had a drink with Linda Leith (whose friendly Globe review of my book noted that we had never even had a drink together, which I was glad to fix) then took off for the West island to spend the night with Mark and Annie Abley. The next day Mark kindly took me to my radio interview with Tommy Schnurmacher at CJAD, a force in English-speaking Montreal. Storytelling works well on radio.
Then it was time for a nostalgic visit to the Chateau Versailles, where Hugh MacLennan delivered his last manuscript to me. I traced his path back to the apartment on Summerhill where he lived for so many years, then followed the walk he loved, along Sherbrooke Street to the McGill Gates. After a fine lunch with Pat and Norman Webster, it was time to take the fancy new airport bus and return to the bosom of my family.
— Douglas Gibson
Treat yourself to a little more Stories About Storytellers at the Canadian Encyclopedia blog. This week, Doug presents James Houston, “the most interesting group of people you will ever meet.” To read the excerpt, head over to the Canadian Encyclopedia.
(Have you missed the previous excerpts? You can still read the selections on W.O. Mitchell, Morley Callaghan, Paul Martin, Barry Broadfoot, Brian Mulroney, Mavis Gallant, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau, Stephen Leacock and Alice Munro.)
Though Doug Gibson is used to people asking him what he’s read or about books he’s worked on, National Post Books Editor Mark Medley recently asked him about a famous book he’d never read. Find out which book it is and why Doug didn’t read it on the Afterword.
A very different trip, this time, from the literary pleasures of the Writers’ Festival. Here I had two missions. First, to deliver a (very speculative) speech to a group assembled at the U. of Ottawa by the Canadian Conference of The Arts (a pro-arts lobby group that I volunteered for in the mid-’80s). The Exec. Director, Alain Pineau, spoke about the situation for Quebec publishers, and I talked about the scene in English Canada, for publishers and writers, and the dangers of prediction. To stress the uncertain climate I quoted both the Book of Proverbs (“the movement of a lizard on a rock”) and October’s Vanity Fair (“half of New York’s publishing companies will be out of business within five years.”) About a dozen of my books were sold, perhaps as a result of panic buying.
The second speech wrapped up the ACSUS Conference, of teachers of Canadian Studies at U.S. universities, with over 500 people in attendance. I roamed around the sessions for a couple of days (intervening once to say that, no, I didn’t believe that Canadian newspapers would systematically decide not to review a novel because it was critical of the oil industry). I then learned that, plenary or no plenary, it is not good to be the final Saturday speaker at a four-day conference. So my host-interviewer Robert Thacker and I simply moved down from the remote speaker’s platform onstage and produced a very informal session at floor-level for the die-hards remaining, some of whom had found copies in Ottawa bookstores for me to sign. Best of all, the session allowed me to spend time with Bob Thacker, the world’s greatest authority on Alice Munro, and her biographer, and a man very complimentary about my book – which benefits greatly from his work on the amazing Alice.
— Douglas Gibson
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 #7
From the chapter on Hugh MacLennan: “I should note that the rule is unvarying; the less experienced writers are the most defensive in the editorial process, insisting that not a hair of their baby’s head, not a comma, be touched.”
Missed the previous tips? Check out Tip #1, Tip #2, Tip #3, Tip #4, Tip #5, and Tip #6.
Douglas Gibson 