43. James King, The Life of Margaret Laurence: 158. AM, June 20, 2003. Interview James Munro, July 9, 2002. Moira Farrow, “Housewife Finds Time to Write Short Stories.”
44. “Funorama”: 38.11.5. Patrick, Rose’s husband in Who, is at one point referred to as “a man who wouldn’t let me hang up a ten-dollar Chagall print”: 37.11.14.14.f1. Munro remembered and described this print again at the beginning of “Soon.”
45. AM, August 22, 2001. “Golden Apples”: 23.
46. In the Alice Munro Fonds there are numerous versions of stories featuring Franklin, coming home from the war, getting off the train early. See, for example, a story called “The Boy Murderer,” or “The War Hero,” 37.16.28. Although the Fonds identify these as short stories, Munro has said “The Boy Murderer” was an attempted novel. AM, April 23, 2004. “Death of a White Fox”: 37.3.1.3, 37.3.6.3.f 18–19. See also 37.3.1–11. AM, April 23, 2004.
47. RW to AM, March 28, 1958, December 8, 1958, December 12, 1958, December 17, 1958 (telegram), January 21, 1959. AM to RW, January 4, 1959: National Archives MG 31 D162. Original December 12, 1958: 37.2.8.3.
48. “Funeral Friday for Mrs. Robert Laidlaw,” Wingham Advance-Times, February 18, 1959: 1. Interview Julie Cruikshank, April 29, 2004.
49. AM, June 20, 2003. “The Peace of Utrecht,” Dance: 209.
50. Metcalf interview: 58. Struthers interview: 21.
51. “Places at Home” [“The Peace of Utrecht”] 37.6.26.f3. “The Peace of Utrecht,” Dance: 196, 201, 199, 195. “The Ottawa Valley,” Something: 246.
52. “The Peace of Utrecht”: 37.6.28.f1, 37.6.33.1–3. AM to RW, n.d. [1959], October 13, 1959, October 24, 1959, December 5, 1959: National Archives MG 31 D162.
53. Irving Layton, “Keine Lazarovitch 1870–1959,” Tamarack Review: 22.
Chapter 4
1. “I was trying to find a meaning”: Gardiner interview: 174. “You don’t really”: AM to Audrey Coffin, April 3, 1968, transcript copy: Private collection. Robert E. Laidlaw to John Chamney, November 20, [1960]: Private collection.
2. “The Time of Death,” Dance: 89, 90, 94, 98–99.
3. Gardiner interview: 173–74. Struthers interview: 23. RW to AM, March 28, 1958. National Archives MG 31 D162. Earle Toppings to AM, March 3, 1967: Private collection. Giose Rimanelli, Introduction, Modern Canadian Stories: xxvii. Robert Weaver, Introduction, Ten for Wednesday Night: xvii.
4. Ten for Wednesday Night: 74. Farrow, “Housewife Finds Time to Write Short Stories.” AM to RW, n.d. [1959], December 5, 1959: National Archives MG 31 D162.
5. Struthers interview: 20. Interview James Munro, July 9, 2002.
6. AM to RW, January 4, 1959. National Archives MG 31 D162. Maria Taaffe, “The Montrealer and Canadian Short Stories”: 8–14 and passim. Interview Gerald Taaffe, May 9, 2003. AM, August 5, 2004.
7. Struthers interview: 23. Gerald Taaffe to AM, August 17, 1961, November 15, 1961, June 8, 1962: 37.2.27.1–3.
8. 37.7.22. This file contains sixteen photocopied reviews of The First Five Years; while some of them single Munro out, most do not.
9. Interview Gerald Taaffe, May 9, 2003. E-mail from him, July 22, 2004.
10. RW to AM, August 24, 1961: 37.2.8.4. Theodore M. Purdy to AM, September 26, 1961: 37.2.1. J.G. McClelland to AM, October 12, 1961: 37.2.22.1. Hugh Kane to AM, November 15, 1961: 37.2.22.2.
11. RW to AM, November 22, 1961: 37.2.8.8. AM, August 22, 2001. John Robert Colombo to AM, n.d.: 37.2.39.1. Because Colombo begins this letter referring to John Webster Grant’s letter of “a year ago,” and he concludes with a reference to a recent story in the Montrealer that could only have been “The Office” (September 1962), this letter was likely written late in 1962. E-mail John Robert Colombo, February 4, 2003.
12. Interview Earle Toppings, January 3, 2003.
13. Interview Sheila Munro, July 11, 2002. Interview Jenny Munro, January 8, 2003. AM, “An Appreciation”: 33. AM, April 24, 2004. Early version of Miles City incident connected with Who: 37.9.9.1. Cather, “Miss Jewett”: 76.
14. “In the spring of 1963.…”: 396/87.3: 6.2. “On Writing ‘The Office’ ”: 260, 261. “The Office,” Dance: 59, 60–61, 74. “An Appreciation”: 32. Interview James Munro, July 9, 2002. Interview Jenny Munro, January 8, 2003. Interview Daphne Cue, April 19, 2004.
15. “In the spring of 1963.…”: 396/87.3: 6.2. AM, June 20, 2003. AM, August 22, 2001. Interview James Munro, July 9, 2002 and April 22, 2004. Interview Daphne Cue, April 19, 2004. MacSkimming, The Perilous Trade: 35–36 and “The Great Original”: 13.
16. “Then at the beginning.…”: 396/87.3: 6.2.
17. Victoria Daily Times, September 14, 1963: 12, October 12, 1963: 8, October 19, 1963: 6. Ross, Alice Munro: 61. AM, June 20, 2003. “Save on wage bill”: AM to Earle Toppings, March 21, 1967: Private collection. Interview Craig Barrett and Ernest Hunter, October 17, 2003. E-mail George Cuomo, January 31, 2004. 396/87.3: 6.2.
18. AM to Earle Toppings, November 30, 1964. Earle Toppings to AM, December 2, 1964. AM to Earle Toppings, October 28, 1965: Private collection. Interview Earle Toppings, January 3, 2003.
19. AM to Earle Toppings, February 23, 1967: Private collection. AM, August 22, 2001. Ross, Alice Munro: 64. Tudor house: 37.19.28.4.f4.
20. Earle Toppings to AM, March 3, 1967. AM to Earle Toppings, March 14, 1967, March 21, 1967: Private collection. There is a manuscript of “The Office” in Alice Munro Fonds with AM’s annotation, “Dear Earle – Here it is in manuscript – I lost the magazine”: 37.6.20. Ross, Alice Munro: 64. Interview James Munro, April 22, 2004. AM, June 20, 2003.
21. Original contract for Dance of the Happy Shades. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Whit by, Ontario. AM, August 22, 2001. Order of composition: Struthers interview: 20. “Postcard” was first published in the Tamarack Review in its spring 1968 issue; initially they were going to publish “Walker Brothers Cowboy” as well, but did not. RW to Earle Toppings, January 26, 1968: Private collection. Author visit to Rockland house, July 9, 2002. A 1969 profile in the Victoria Daily Times mentions that Munro’s typewriter “sits in an upstairs room in proximity to domestic necessities such as a washing machine and a sewing machine.” Jan Gould, “Memory, Experiences of ‘Normal Life’ Feed Her Fiction.”
22. Earle Toppings to AM, March 5, 1968, January 15, 1968 (two letters). AM to Audrey Coffin, March 27, 1968 (transcript): Private collection.
23. Georgeanna [Hamilton] to Hugh Garner, March 13, 1968. Robin M. Farr to Georgeanna Hamilton, March 13, 1968. Audrey Coffin to Hugh Garner, March 28, March 29, April 4, May 10, 1968. Hugh Garner to Audrey Coffin, May 11, 1968. “The Stories of Alice Munro” (carbon of original submission). Correspondence, January–May 1968: Hugh Garner Fonds, Queen’s University.
24. AM to Audrey Coffin, April 3, 1968 (transcript). Earle Toppings to Audrey Coffin, April 8, 1968. Here Toppings comments on “Images,” which he has read in manuscript, Garner’s foreword, and approves the idea of having Robert Weaver write the blurb for the back of the dust jacket. He also makes suggestions as to the book’s design, and how to handle the designer. Earle Toppings to Audrey Coffin, April 10, 1968, transcript copy: Private collection. Here he advocates Dance of the Happy Shades over Walker Brothers Cowboy for the book’s title. Date of publication: Frank Flemington to Hugh Garner, September 24, 1968. Correspondence, June–December 1968: Hugh Garner Fonds, Queen’s University.
25. E-mail George Cuomo January 31, interview February 3, 2004. “My almost only”: 396/87.3: 6.6. This is an earlier draft of “On John Metcalf: Taking Writing Seriously,” where the passage has become “A creative writing teacher at the University of Victoria had told me that I wrote the kind of things he used to write when he was fifteen” (6). Russell did not join the faculty until after this incident. Sheila Munro, Lives of Mothers and Daughters: 191. AM, April 23, 2004. E-mail Lawrence Russell, August 13, 2003.
26. Advertisement for Dance of the Happy Shades, one of “the Ryerson Collection of Fine Canadian Books,” Globe and Mail, Globe
Magazine, n.d. [1968]. Dorothy Bishop, “A Novel of the Week.” Kent Thompson, radio script review of Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro, CBZ Fredericton. Leo Simpson, radio script review of Dance and Miracle at Indian River by Alden Nowlan. Anthology. All items 37.7.18.
27. All reviews 37.7.18.
28. Hilda Kirkwood, rev. of Dance: 260. Kent Thompson, Fiddlehead rev. of Dance: 71. Audrey Thomas, “ ‘She’s Only a Girl,’ He Said”: 91, 92. David Helwig, “Canadian Letters”: 128. Beth Harvor, “The Special World of the WW’s”: 3.
29. Robin Farr to AM, March 18, 1969 and advance press release on Governor General’s Award nominees (March 18, 1969) by Gerald Taaffe and Mario Lavoie: 37.2.39.4. John Peter: 126. AM, April 23, 2004. “Literary Fame Catches City Mother Unprepared.” Victoria Daily Times, April 22, 1969. William French, “The Establishment Beware! These Awards Are With It.” Globe and Mail, April 22, 1969: 13. “B. C. Mother of Three Wins Top Literary Award.” Vancouver Sun: 1, 13. “Victoria Woman’s Book Wins Literary Award.” Victoria Daily Colonist, April 22, 1969: 1–2. “Ex-Wingham Resident Wins Literary Award.” London Free Press, April 22, 1969. Newspaper stories 37.20.22. “Oakville Wife Wins Literary Prize”: 709/01.15:5.1. Mrs. P. Schwantje to AM, April 23, 1969: 37.2.55.4.
30. William French, “Leonard Cohen Wants to Be Governor-General.” Globe and Mail, May 17, 1969: 25. Mordecai Richler, “A Little Noblesse Oblige Goes a Long Way at the Top.” Victoria Daily Times, June 21, 1969: 5. Interview Robert Weaver, July 3, 2001. Connolly, Freake, Sherman interview: 10.
31. Toppings interview. Jan Gould, “Memory, Experiences of ‘Normal Life’ Feed Her Fiction”: 37.20.22. AM, August 5, 2004. “Woman Author Wins Award.” Toronto Star, February 3, 1973: 37.20.22. This was a Canadian Press story, so it was syndicated. Munro mentioned this incident often in interviews.
32. Interview John Metcalf, June 17, 2002. AM, “On John Metcalf”: 6.
33. “Author’s Commentary”: 126. “The Colonel’s Hash Resettled”: 183.
34. E-mails Audrey Thomas, August 1 and 2, 2004. Interview Margaret Atwood, January 27, 2004. Phoebe Larmore to Toivo Kiil, December 22, 1975: Private collection.
35. John Morgan Gray, “Canadian Books,” Earle Birney, “Canadian Publishing,” in “Publishing in Canada,” Canadian Literature: 27, 12. My “Gazing Through the One-Way Mirror” develops these contexts as they affect Canadian literature in more detail; see also MacSkimming and, for a contemporary assessment of book publishing, Robert Weaver’s “Books.”
36. Peter Sypnowich, “It Was a Sad, Sad Day for Ryerson Press Staff,” Toronto Star, November 3, 1970: 34. George Parker, “Sale of Ryerson Press”: 29. “McGraw-Hill Takes Over Ryerson,” Quill & Quire, December 11, 1970: 1.
37. AM to Earle Toppings, November 24, December 16, 1970. Audrey Coffin to Earle Toppings [January 1970]: Private collection.
38. Margaret Laurence to Audrey Coffin, December 30, 1968: Private collection. Margaret Laurence to Judith Jones, February 10, 1969. Also Laurence to Jones, February 25, March 8, and July 19, 1969. Jones to Laurence, February 19, 1969. Alfred A. Knopf Archive. E-mail Judith Jones, May 3, 2004.
39. “On Writing ‘The Office’ ”: 261. AM, August 5, 2004. AM to Audrey Coffin, October 22, 1970: Private Collection. AM to Audrey Coffin, December 10 and 22, 1970: 396/87.3: 1.119. Audrey Coffin to AM, December 14, 1970: 37.2.24.1.
40. Lives: [iv, vii]. Tausky interview. 37.4.40–41. 396/87.3: 1.119. Struthers interview: 25. Tausky, “ ‘What Happened to Marion?’.”
41. Miss Musgrave: 37.4.22. “Walker Brothers Cowboy” and Lives: 37.3.12. 396/87.3: 1.119. Tausky interview. Lives: 253.
42. 374.17.f4. Interview Toivo Kiil, January 7, 2003. Toivo Kiil to AM, March 10 and 23, 1971: 37.2.24.2-3. VB to John Diamond, January 17, 1983: 396/87.3: 2a.1. All materials connected with the production of Lives and Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You at McGraw-Hill Ryerson, including contracts, appear to have been destroyed by the firm.
43. E.D. Ward-Harris, rev. of Lives. Quoted from ad Victoria Daily Times December 11, 1971: 23. 37.5.14.
44. Irene Howard, “An Elegant Look at the World of Women”: 23. 37.5.14. Clara Thomas, “Woman Invincible”: 96. James Polk, “Deep Caves Paved with Kitchen Linoleum”: 102–04.
45. “Alice Munro Wins CBA Award”: 8. Bryan L. Bacon (British Columbia Library Association) to AM, September 29, 1972: 37.2.6. Toivo Kiil to AM, October 13, and November 13, 1972: 37.2.25.1–2.
Chapter 5
1. Lives: 240. Connolly, Freake, Sherman interview: 8. “Soon,” Runaway: 87, 88. In between these two instances, Munro also used Chagall’s I and the Village in draft material connected to Lives; as in “Soon,” a print of it is a character’s present to her mother: 37.4.40.1. “Funorama”: 38.11.5. AM, August 5, 2004. “The Author,” Dance dust-jacket flap.
2. Sheila Munro, Lives: 199, 201. Interview James Polk, June 8, 2004.
3. Ross, Alice Munro: 64. Sheila Munro, Lives: 82–84. AM, June 20, 2003.
4. AM, June 20, 2003. “Jakarta,” Love. Sheila Munro, Lives: 208–9, 83, 84, 219–20, 82. AM, April 23, 2004.
5. “Material,” Something: 42, 35, 43. “Chaddeleys and Flemings: 1. Connection,” Moons: 18. “Miles City, Montana,” Progress: 91–92.
6. AM to JM, November 26, 1969, June 11, 1971, John Metcalf Fonds: 24.24.1.5, 24.21.10.28. AM, April 23, 2004. AM to Marian Engel, August 29, 1984, Marian Engel Fonds: 31.67.
7. AM to Earle Toppings, June 8, July 26, August 31, September 12, 1972. Earle Toppings to AM, July 11, 1972: Private collection. He “looked bad enough”: 12 September.
8. Ross, Alice Munro: 75. Thomas, “Initram.” AM, April 23, 2004.
9. RW to AM, November 27, [1971 or ’72?]: 37.1.29. Earle Toppings to AM, March 5, 1968: Private collection. AM to JM, February 5, 1973, John Metcalf Fonds: 24.13.32.17. 1973 income tax return: 38.2.75. RW to AM, April 18, 1973: 37.2.8.11.
10. JM to Desmond [Pacey], March 6, 1973: 24.13.32.25. AM to JM, January 15, February 5, August 12, 1973. John Metcalf Fonds: 24.13.32.12-13, 87.
11. Interview Margaret Atwood, January 27, 2004. Details of teaching appointment: L.A.D. Morey to AM, March 6, April 2, 1973: 37.2.33.1-2. E.D. Baravale to AM, May 4, 1973: 37.2.33.3.
12. “Creative Writing”: 37.19.27.3, 10, 8. “Eternal Springs” is the version of the story in which the husband teaches at the college: 37.14.46. “Red Dress – 1946,” Dance: 160. AM, April 23, 2004.
13. D.R. Ewen to AM, January 18, 1974: 37.2.52. E-mail Mary Swan, February 24, 2004. AM, June 20, 2003.
14. John Metcalf Fonds: 24.48.17.f23. The version in New Canadian Stories is dated November 12, 1973, the dedication remains though “with love” has been omitted.
15. William French. “Script for CBC on Writers’ Union.” Broadcast November 11, 1971. William French Collection. Toivo Kiil to AM, November 13, 1972: 37.2.25.2. Interview Toivo Kiil, January 7, 2003.
16. Geoffrey Wolff, “Call It Fiction”: 66. The Denise Levertov review of Lives is an unidentified proof copy in the Alice Munro Fonds; its published source has not been identified. See 37.5.15.
17. See 37.15.16.
18. See 37.7.19–20.
19. Toivo Kiil to AM, November 13, 1972: 37.2.25.2. Interview Toivo Kiil, January 7, 2003. AM, April 23, 2004.
20. Toivo Kiil to AM, August 23, 1973: 38.1.80.2. McGraw-Hill Ryerson Royalty Statement January–June 1974 shows a $5,000 advance for Something: 38.1.80.4 a–c.
21. Robert Fulford, “Tamarack Review Returns to Offer Good Writing.” “Material,” Something: 42. AM, April 23, 2004. “Real People”: 37.8.8. Munro identified this as dating from the 1960s.
22. These generalizations are supported by draft materials in the Alice Munro Fonds (37.7-9). Alice Kelling, Chris’s fiancé in “How I Met My Husband,” was in the same position in “Death of White Fox” (see 37.3.6.3.f1). And Robina, in “Executioners,” was from a family connected to the Frenches in Lives. The double murder Mr. Lougheed dreams about in “Walking on Water”
is related to “The Boy Murderer,” which was in Lives, as was Miss Musgrave, who used to own the house in which he lives. In one fragment a Mr. Lougheed plays cards with her in Mock Hill, a place name Munro used in Something (37.14.2-0-22, 37.4.21.26).
23. AM, June 19, 2003. AM, April 23, 2004. “Mrs. W.C. Laidlaw Dies in 90th Year,” Wingham Advance-Times, January 13, 1966. “Winter Wind,” Something: 195, 204, 206, 201. “The Ottawa Valley,” Something: 246.
24. “The Ottawa Valley,” Something: 244–46. AM, “A Walk on the Wild Side”: 38, 41. “Home”: 153.
25. Interview Jack Hodgins, April 21, 2004. AM, June 20, 2003. Struthers interview: 26–28. John Metcalf Fonds, 24.20: passim. “Home”: 152.
26. Interview Toivo Kiil, January 7, 2003. The manuscript of Something used for typesetting is in the Alice Munro Fonds (37.9.1–2) and, in addition, there are manuscript pages connected with individual stories showing Munro rejecting proposed changes. See for example, 38.3.3, from “Executioners.”
27. David Stouck, rev. of Something: 46. E.D. Blodgett, rev. of Something: 100. See also passim.
28. Bette Howland, “Tricks, Trap-Doors, a Writer’s Craft.” Frederick Busch, “A Trio of Fictions”: 54. Susan Cushman, “Munro’s Story Collection Is her Weakest So Far.” 37.9.4, passim.
29. Joanna Beyersbergen, “No Bitterness or Anxiety for Writer”: 70.
30. John Metcalf Fonds: 24.20, passim. Fred Bodsworth to AM, October 31, 1974: 37.2.5. AM, June 20, 2003.
31. Elizabeth Christman (Coordinator, Great Lakes College Association) to AM, May 28, 1974: 37.2.17. Paul Vasey, “Alice Has a Lot of Reasons to Be Happy”: 38.13.5. AM, August 22, 2001. Audrey Coffin to AM, October 7, 1974: 37.2.25.5.
32. John Metcalf Fonds: 24.20, passim. Rehearsal of “Home”: 24.45.6. Loyola Reading: 24.43.2.
33. Draft “Married People”: 38.11.4. Interview John Metcalf, June 17, 2002. “Married People,” John Metcalf Fonds: 24.48.16.f2, 21.
34. Audrey Coffin to AM, October 7, 1974: 37.2.25.5. Douglas Gibson to AM, August 26, 1974, January 23, 1975: 37.2.20.2-3. Interview Douglas M. Gibson, October 16, 2003.
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