The Life of Margaret Laurence
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14 “No one could ever”: Heart of a Stranger, 146–7.
15 mini-play: MS: York.
16 “But I am not”: MS: York.
17 “One family legend”: Dance, 29–30.
18 “The only traces”: Dance, 31.
19 Verna and Bob Wemyss’s house: In Dance (33), ML claimed that her parents had to “wait for several years until they had some money saved and their future home (and my birth home) was built.” However, ML’s birth home at 265 Vivian Street, to which she refers as the “Little House” (as opposed to the “Big House,” the Simpson home), was probably built around 1915. The original structure was a small cottage to which additions, including a dormer, were added.
20 “My mothers idealization”: Dance, 38.
21 Mother’s Record: Compiled by Mary A. Clarke Colquhoun; Illustrated by L. Patterson Marsh (Chicago: Volland, 1923).
22 “Peggy Noni”: Interview with Catherine Simpson Milne, December 1994.
23 “I am back”: Dance, 25.
24 “ ‘blood’ children”: Afterword to The Fire-Dwellers, 286.
CHAPTER TWO
1 “that some”: Dance, 48.
2 “a man”: Dance, 48.
3 “They joined”: Dance, 50.
4 “Mum was never”: Dance, 50.
5 “I can only guess”: Dance, 49.
6 “She told me”: Dance, 49.
7 “In those pictures”: Dance, 51.
8 “The entries”: Dance, 27–8.
9 “I was pretty annoyed”: Dance, 52.
10 “Blue Sky” and the playhouse: Information from Catherine Milne.
11 “It wasn’t”: Dance, 63.
12 “Mum is holding”: Dance, 51.
13 “He had found it”: Dance, 55.
14 “He had taken” Dance, 61.
15 “after our dad”: Dance, 52.
16 “What’s the matter”: Dance, 52–3.
17 “small creature”: A Bird in the House, 58.
18 “stale and old-smelling”: A Bird in the House, 47.
19 “We would play”; “We used to take”: Margaret Laurence Review (1992–3), 2 and 3, 40.
20 “I really am”: ML Journal, 6 October 1966. MS: McMaster.
21 “My father”: Dance, 55. In Neepawa, a rumour persists that Bob and his brother-in-law Stuart, who died in the same month and in similar circumstances, had been out drinking on New Year’s Eve at the Odd Fellows Hall and, later, at a hotel. According to this piece of gossip, they left the hotel on foot but were so drunk that they fell in a snow bank, where they were not discovered until the following day. Their deaths could thus be due to influenza activated by hypothermia. I have discovered no hard evidence to support this story.
22 “I remember”: Dance, 56.
23 “After a while”: A Bird in the House, 103.
CHAPTER THREE
1 “We didn’t stay”: Dance, 56.
2 “Sometimes”: Dance, 57.
3 “carrying voice”: Dance, 59.
4 “burning fury”; “I had been afraid”: Dance, 58.
5 hatred of peonies: Greta Coger interview with Catherine Milne. Typescript provided by interviewer.
6 “corner where”: Dance, 58.
7 “We all had”: Dance, 60.
8 “She’d painted”: Dance, 60.
9 “Girls”: Dance, 60.
10 “shape of a portly”: Dance, 61.
11 “I was writing”: Dance, 61.
12 “I was off”: Dance, 61.
13 “only deaths”: Dance, 62.
14 “The name”: A Bird in the House, 63.
15 “Then, as I gazed”: A Bird in the House, 79.
16 “Suppressed unhappiness”; “He’ll outlive me”: Dance, 69.
17 “the huge and lengthy”: Dance, 64.
18 “changed its function”: Dance, 64.
19 “The indomitable Pearl”; “Both Anne and Emily”: “Books That Mattered to Me,” Margaret Laurence: An Appreciation, ed. Christl Verduyn (Peterborough: Broadview Press, 1988), 241.
20 “ear-boggling”; “I hated that”: Dance, 66.
21 “She had done her best”: Dance, 67.
22 “There was an outside”: Dance, 67.
23 “We naturally ignored”: Dance, 68.
24 “He likes”: Interview with Louise Kubik, May 1995.
25 “even at my”; “Fortunately for”: Dance, 70.
26 “too proud and shy”; “could be said”: Dance, 71.
27 “That summer”: Dance, 71–2.
28 “Potato salad”: A Bird in the House, 124.
29 “The method”: A Bird in the House, 125–6.
30 “I could not speak”: A Bird in the House, 141.
31 “He had been”: A Bird in the House, 142.
32 “Have you ever”: A Bird in the House, 128.
33 Bud: Information from Ruth Bailey Parent.
34 “could have loved”: Dance, 257.
CHAPTER FOUR
1 “Once upon a time”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 22 March 1984. MS: York.
2 “heroic”: Dance, 79.
3 ML and Donald Strath: Interviews with Mona Meredith and Louise Kubik, May 1995.
4 “Johnnie”: ML Diary 14 August 1986. MS: McMaster.
5 the bridge game: interview with Louise Kubik, May 1995.
6 “The Land of Our Fathers”: When ML told of this story’s composition in Dance, she gave it the fictional title—“The Pillars of the Nation”—from A Bird in the House.
7 “The only part”; “My aunt’s secretary”: Dance, 73.
8 “It was written”: Dance, 73–4.
9 “as though”: Dance, 77.
10 “fighting”: Interview with Mildred Musgrove, June 1995.
11 “with pungent and gooey”: Dance, 78.
12 “I remember practically”: Dance, 76.
13 “I studied”: Dance, 76–7. W.L. Morton’s Manitoba: A History (first published in 1957) was the text that made her aware of the real history of her province. “When I first read Morton’s Manitoba, it was with a tremendous sense of excitement, combined with an angry sense of having been deprived when young, of my own heritage. I have since done a great deal of reading of prairie history, but it was Morton who first gave me the sense of my place’s long and dramatic past.”: “Books That Mattered to Me” in Margaret Laurence: An Appreciation, 245.
14 “I would have”: “Books That Mattered to Me,” in Margaret Laurence: An Appreciation, 245.
15 “I was”: Dance, 75.
16 “Girls were”: Dance, 75.
17 “All of us girls”: Dance, 76.
18 “If you were a girl”: Dance, 78–9.
19 “My mother”: Dance, 81.
20 “When I was”: Dance, 84.
21 “never to be seen”: Dance, 84–5.
22 “man from Miramichi”: Dance, 85.
23 “I fell in love”: Dance, 86.
24 “absolutely right”; “brash”: Dance, 87.
25 “I had at last”; “In love though I was”: Dance, 88.
26 “Like me”: A Bird in the House, 181.
27 “You ought”: A Bird in the House, 184.
28 John Simpson on Derek’s marital status: Joan Hind-Smith, Three Voices (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1975), 11.
29 “When I married”: Unpublished excerpt from typescript of Dance, 122. MS: McMaster.
30 “What I could not”: A Bird in the House, 186.
31 “Since I was of an age”: Dance, 89.
32 “When I left my home”: Rosemary Sullivan, “An Interview with Margaret Laurence,” A Place to Stand On: Essays by and about Margaret Laurence, ed. George Woodcock, Western Canadian Literary Documents Series, 4 (Edmonton: NeWest Press, 1983), 62–3.
33 “That pic of the three”: ML to Louise Kubik, 26 February 1983. MS: Louise Kubik.
CHAPTER FIVE
1 “Winter”: The Diviners, 193–4.
2 “Oh many”: ML to Don Bailey, 18 February 1973. MS: University of Toronto.
3 “I remember”: Lois Wilson, Turning the World Upside Down: A Memoir, (Toronto: Doubleday, 1989), 229.
4 “only to receive”: Dance, 92.
5 “nearby hamburger”; “we spent”: Dance, 92.
6 “they were as”: Dance, 93.
7 “You hoped: Dance, 93.
8 “principles”: Dance, 94.
9 “Kids from”: Dance, 91.
10 “either mediocre”: Dance, 101.
11 “Obviously”: Dance, 101.
12 “When Peggy”: Lois Wilson, Turning the World Upside Down, 230.
13 “Right from”: Wilson, 230.
14 “You are expected”: Dance, 95.
15 “we couldn’t afford”: ML, “Books That Mattered to Me” in Margaret Laurence: An Appreciation, 242.
16 “profoundly”: Dance, 95.
17 “Who would have”: 10 June 1982. MS: University of Toronto.
18 “Frankly”: 30 November 1983. MS: University of Toronto.
19 “eager awareness”: Interview with Malcolm Ross, June 1995.
20 “when I first”: Dance, 5.
21 “As a short”: Dance, 96.
22 “proceeded to”: Dance, 97.
23 excerpts from “Calliope” and “Tal des Walde”: Vox, 18 and 19.
24 “When I was in third year”: ML to Don Bailey, 18 February 1973. MS: University of Toronto.
25 “Margaret was a year”: As quoted in Harry Gutkin, The Worst of Times, The Best of Times (Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1987), 202.
26 “short rather”: The Diviners, 195.
27 “in-group”; “friend for life”: The Diviners, 195, 197.
28 “I always knew”: Gutkin, The Worst of Times, 201–2.
29 “There was one winter”: Gutkin, 199.
30 “my brother”: Dance, 101.
31 “seriously”: Dance, 102.
CHAPTER SIX
1 “handsome devil”: First Lady of Manawaka (Toronto: NFB, 1978).
2 “One day”: Dance, 102.
3 “When she was eighteen”: Dance, 125–6.
4 “a woman with a vocation”: Dance, 128.
5 “I remember”: The Prophet’s Camel Bell, 153.
6 “He served: Dance, 102.
7 Watson Thomson: His books included Pioneer in Community: Henri Lasserre’s Contribution to the Fully Cooperative Society (1949) and Turning into Tomorrow (1966).
8 Alice: Interview with Alice Dahlquist, July 1995.
9 “He is way too much”: Interview with Mona Meredith, May 1995.
10 “must have thought”: Dance, 103.
11 “Just before”: Dance, 105.
12 “Why was she”: Unpublished excerpt from typescript of Dance, 121. MS: McMaster.
13 “Mum was not”: Dance, 103.
14 “incredibly happy”: Dance, 104.
15 “a navy-blue suit”: Dance, 5.
16 “Sex was never”: Unpublished excerpt, Dance, 122. MS: McMaster.
17 “I don’t think”: Unpublished excerpt, Dance, 122. MS: McMaster.
18 “Stranded”: Dance, 105.
19 party allegiance: In a letter to Al Purdy (23 October 1967), ML refers to her job at The Westerner as her “second job after college.” In Dance, she gives the impression this was her first job. Lennox, 61.
20 Bill Ross: A great deal of useful information is contained in Doug Smith’s biography of Bill Ross’s brother: Joe Zuken: Citizen and Socialist (Toronto: James Lorimer, 1990).
21 “when I began”: ML to Al Purdy, 23 October 1967. Lennox, 61.
22 “Those old-time”: Dance, 107.
23 “the only co-operative”: Dance, 107.
24 “North Winnipeg”: Dance, 108.
25 “It had a gas-fire”: “The Wemyss and Simpson Families: Some Facts, Dates, Legends.” Undated typescript by ML: York.
26 “The long-awaited”: ML to Adele Wiseman, January 1950. MS: York.
27 “we were going”: ML to Guś and Sheila Andrzejewski, 22 April 1952. MS: Sheila Andrzejewski.
28 “When Jack and I”: ML Journal, undated. MS: McMaster.
29 “England by Me”: All citations are from the typescript, now at McMaster. The letter is dated 24 November 1949. Adele returned the typescript to ML in 1968.
30 “was over at Adele’s”: ML to the Wisemans, 17 November 1950. MS: York.
31 the thirty dams: This project was in response to the recommendations made by John A. Hunt in A General Survey of the Somaliland Protectorate, 1944–1950, (Hargeisa: Printed in London for the Somaliland Government, 1951).
32 “The average”; “a need to work”; “typical”: The Prophet’s Camel Bell, 11.
33 “We went”: ML to the Wisemans. MS: York.
CHAPTER SEVEN
All citations in this chapter, except where noted below, are from The Prophet’s Camel Bell.
1 “I’ve been going ahead”: MS: York.
2 “We were so glad”: To Guś and Sheila Andrzejewski, 9 November 1951. MS: Sheila Andrzejewski.
3 excerpts from “Uncertain Flowering”: Story: The Magazine of the Short Story in Book Form, 4, eds. Whit and Hallie Burnett (New York: Wyn, 1953), 33, 34.
4 “In a country”: A Tree for Poverty, 47.
5 “I long for you”: A Tree for Poverty, 48.
6 “Suppose I kill”: A Tree for Poverty, 135.
7 Michael Wilson: In The Prophet’s Camel Bell (243–4), ML talks about “Matthew’s” life after he left Somaliland: “He was working in the resettlement of Arab refugees. Ultimately, he returned to Africa, as he was almost bound to do, and took a post with the Information Service in a country which has recently gained its Independence … I believe he [now] works for the work’s sake, and because he loves Africa.
8 Occasionally he has tried to settle down in England, but he never stays for long.” In about 1958—as ML’s letters to Adele Wiseman of 28 February and 10 September 1959 (MS: York) make clear—he tried to place This Side Jordan with Macmillan.
9 “Still, it was interesting”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 30 January 1952. MS: York.
10 “separate entities”: Margaret Laurence in Conversation with Clara Thomas. Canadian Writers on Video Series. (Toronto: Mirus Films/ECW, 1985).
11 “for it really”: “Half-War, Half-Peace.” Unpublished paper: York, 5. “I’ve been terribly”: MS: York.
12 “The reason”; “a Steinbeck”: MS: York.
13 only one surviving story set in Somaliland: However, ML may have adapted or integrated portions of her now-lost Somali stories into The Tomorrow-Tamer, all ten stories of which are set in the Gold Coast. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that she worked on a variety of short stories while in Somaliland, although she does not mention them in The Prophet’s Camel Bell. In December 1953, she sent a Somali short story entitled “Amiina” to Malcolm Ross for inclusion in Queen’s Quarterly (ML to Adele Wiseman, 14 December 1953. MS: York). This narrative is about a “Somali girl and [a] European bloke” who shoots himself (ML to Adele Wiseman, 27 November 1953. MS: York). Ross rejected the story, but he later accepted another story set in Somaliland, although he told ML in September 1954 that he would prefer to publish a more recent piece of work set in the Gold Coast. In response, ML sent him in 1955 “The Drummer of All the World,” published in the Winter 1956 issue of Queen’s Quarterly. This was ML’s second African short story to be published, but the first to be set in West Africa.
In the Macmillan archives (in a letter of 7 May 1964) is a reference to one other African story which was possibly set in Somaliland: “Mrs. Cathcart, In and Out of Purdah.”
14 “I have been writing”: MS: Sheila Andrzejewski.
15 “I’ve been trying”; “bread from a”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 30 January 1952. MS: York.
16 “it would be a waste”: 30 January 1952. MS: York.
17 “I nearly lost her”: 16 January 1969. MS: York.
CHAPTER EIGHT
1 “excessively African”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 7 August 1952
. MS: York.
2 “the whole problem”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 18 August 1952. MS: York.
3 “I was in labour”: MS: York.
4 “The spirit is willing”: Dance, 140.
5 “Did I have”: Dance, 140.
6 “She is so sturdy”: Dance, 138, 140.
7 “I was ecstatic”: Dance, 109.
8 “I thought I could”: Dance, 109.
9 “A lady gets dressed”: Dance, 109.
10 “wished I would”; “lesser species”; “a tendency to convulsions”: Dance, 141–2.
11 “when it is someone”: ML to Al Purdy, 5 January 1968. Lennox, 81–2.
12 “After the first week”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 1 December 1952. MS: York.
13 “architect-designed”: Dance, 143.
14 “How the hell”: Dance, 143.
15 “The country is”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 1 December 1952. MS: York.
16 “We have been lucky”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 1 December 1952. MS: York.
17 “When young African men”: Dance, 17.
18 “proprietoress of”; “I lose all semblance”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 22 December 1952. MS: York.
19 “You and Jack”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 22 December 1952. MS: York. “Uncertain Flowering”: Later in life, ML seems to have forgotten about “Uncertain Flowering”; she never referred to it as part of her canon. The story was rediscovered by W.J. Keith in “ ‘Uncertain Flowering’: An Overlooked Short Story by Margaret Laurence,” Canadian Literature 112 (1987), 202–5. The typescripts at Princeton were discovered by Donez Xiques. See “New Light on Margaret Laurence’s First Short Story,” Canadian Notes and Queries 42 (Spring 1990), 14–21.
20 “You asked”: MS: Princeton.
21 “Books of short stories”: Whit Burnett to ML, 4 February 1953. MS carbon: Princeton.
22 “I had not realized”: ML to Whit Burnett, 12 February 1953. MS: Princeton.
23 “I keep telling”: ML to Adele Wiseman, 20 July 1953. MS: York.