Alice Munro

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Alice Munro Page 70

by Robert Thacker


  25. Galleys: Invoice, Crane Duplicating Service, Barnstable, MA: M&S. Knopf author’s proof: 396/87.3: 14.1. Penguin: Peter Waldock to Ann Nelles, August 21, 1986, DG to AM, August 27, 1986, DG to VB, August 27, 1986: M&s. “Distinguished”: Ken Adachi, “Alice Munro Honored with First Marian Engel Award,” Toronto Star, October 21, 1986: Hi. “Hometown”: VB to DG, September 16, 1986: M&s. AM to JM [n.d. received November 6, 1986: JM], AM to JM, November 21, 1986: John Metcalf Fonds: 24.8.9.19, 24.8.9.21. “Accident,” Moons: 109.

  26. Beverly Slopen, “Alice Munro’s Audience Grows,” Toronto Star, August 3, 1986. “Darling”: Sumi. “Not doing anything new”: “Writer’s Writers”: 10.

  27. Beverly Slopen, “PW Interviews Alice Munro”: 76. Joyce Carol Oates, “Characters Dangerously Like Us”: 7, 9. Anne Tyler, “Canadian Club”: 54. “Size reported”: Ken Adachi, “J.D. Salinger’s Biography Too Tame to Cause Ripples,” Toronto Star, February 2, 1987: D2.

  28. Book-of-the-Month Club News November 1986: 1–4. “Editor’s Choice: Best Books of 1986,” New York Times Book Review, December 7, 1986: 3, 37, 40. “Atwood and Munro Touted by Times,” Globe and Mail, December 8, 1986: D9. M&S Royalty statement: May 1, 1987 (July–December 1986). Lisa Rochon, “Munro Wins Top Literary Prize,” Globe and Mail, May 28, 1987: D1. David Macfarlane, “Writer in Residence”: 56.

  29. Norman Mailer to AM, April 22, 1985, Karen Kennerly (P.E.N. International) to AM, April 22, 1985: 396/87.3: 2.27.

  30. Judith Timson, “Merciful Light”: 66. “CBC Radio Asks Robert Weaver to Retire Early,” Globe and Mail, January 17, 1985: Ei. AM to JM, March 24, 1985, March 28, 1988: John Metcalf Fonds: 24.8.9.13, 22. “The Ottawa Valley,” Something: 246. “Friend of My Youth,” Friend: 3, 26.

  31. AM, “Contributors Notes,” Best American Short Stories 1989: 322. Here Munro mentions Clinton’s “Miss Mountcastle” and Goderich’s “Sweet Songstress of Le Mer Douce.” See Nerissa Arch McInnes, “The Clever Mountcastle Family,” Godard, and “Eloise Skimings.” Joynt: Wingham Advance-Times, March 10, 1938: 2. “Meneseteung” typescript: 396/87.3:3.2. “Meneseteung” Knopf setting text: 396/87.3: 3.4. “Meneseteung,” Friend: 73, 68–69, 70. “Circle of Prayer,” Progress: 273.

  32. DG to Kelly Hechler, Janet Heisey, Bill Hushion, Don Sedgwick, December 8, 1989: M&S. D.J.R. Bruckner, “An Author Travels to Nurture Ideas About Home.” Harbourfront: Kelly Heckler to AM, February 14, 1990. Mary Pratt’s Wedding Dress: DG to file, January 5, 1990. Sales figures: DG to Bill Hushion, Lynn Shannon, July 19, 1990. DG to Alison Samuel, June 6, 1990: M&S.

  33. M&S ad: Globe and Mail, April 28, 1990: C8. Bharati Mukherjee, “Hometown Horrors”: 1, 31. Malcolm Jones, Jr., “The Glory of the Story”: 56, 57. Philip Marchand, “Telling Stories”: M13. Mary Jo Salter, “In Praise of Accidents”: 51, 52, 53. Robert Towers, “Short Satisfactions”: 38. Maria Russo, “Final Chapter”: 34. Carol Shields, “In Ontario”: 22, 23.

  Chapter 8

  1. “Carried Away,” Open: 50. “What Do You Want to Know For?”: 220. Ozick, “A Short Note on ‘Chekhovian’ ”: 88, 89. E-mail AC, December 16, 2004. Diane Turbide, “The Incomparable Storyteller”: 46, 47. Trillium Award: “Munro Honoured,” Globe and Mail, August 28, 1991: A11. Air Lingus: DG to Kelly Hechler, September 7, 1990: M&S. Molson: “Cultural Award Winner,” Toronto Star, April 4, 1991: A4. Commonwealth: DG to AM, November 7, 1991. W.H. Smith: DG to AM, January 11, 1995: M&S. “Lannan Gives 10 Writers $500K,” Publishers Weekly, September 25, 1995: 10.

  2. AM to JM, March 28, 1988: John Metcalf Fonds: 24.8.9.22. Daniel Menaker, “Authors! Authors!”: 117. New Yorker, June 27, July 4, 1994: passim. E-mail Daniel Menaker, August 10 and 17, 2003. AM to Daniel Menaker, November 21, 1991, two n.d., and July 26, 1993: Private collection.

  3. Gzowski interview (1994). “The Albanian Virgin,” Open: 50. Description of tobacco work: AM, June 19, 2003. Interview Reg Thompson, June 10, 2004.

  4. Val Ross, “A Writer Called Alice”: C1. Daniel Menaker, “Authors! Authors!”: 117. Ann Hulbert, “Writer Without Borders”: 59. DG to AC, January 20, February 7, 1994: M&s. Open Secrets proof: 752/04.3: 6.2. “Open Secrets,” Open: 153–44. New York Times Bestseller Listing, New York Times Book Review, October 2, 1994: 38. David Helwig, “Alice in Wonderland”: I1.

  5. Josephine Humphreys, “Mysteries Near at Hand”: 1, 36, 37. “The two stories combined”: Alinda Becker, “Sex and Self-Defense.” J.R. (Tim) Struthers, “How Real, How Magical”: 33, 32. Ann Hulbert, “Writer Without Borders”: 59, 60. Ted Solotaroff, “Life Stories”: 665, 666. “Vandals,” Open: 268–69. Wendy Lesser, “The Munro Doctrine”: 53, 51, 52. Lesser is quoting from the McCulloch-Simpson interview. Merna Summers, “An Entertainer of the Spirit”: 39.

  6. Harbourfront Reading Series Press Release (August 12, 1994): M&s. “Munro, Davies Read Together,” Toronto Star, August 9, 1994: C4. Vancouver reading: Alma Lee to Kelly Hechler, December 12, 1994: M&s. David Staines, Introduction, Prize Writing: 17–19. Interview David Staines, January 15, 2004. DG to AM, January 11, 1995. Final sales: DG sales meeting notes for Selected Stories (1996): M&s. Translations: Laura Nolan (Barber Literary Agency) to Kelly Hechler, September 13, 1994: M&s. Thirteen languages: Draft promotional material for Selected Stories: M&s.

  7. David Creighton, “In Search of Alice Munro”: 19. Elizabeth Campbell and Sandra Molloy, “Self-Guided Tour of Points of Interest in the Town of Wingham Relating to Alice Munro.” Wingham: North Huron District Museum, 2000. 17″ x 11″ sheet. “This tour is in no way connected to Alice Munro.”

  8. VB to AM, May 10, 1984: 396/87.3: 2a.1. VB to DG, March 9, 1995. DG to AM, March 4, 1996. DG to VB, June 22, 1995. David Staines to DG, December 3, 1995: M&s. AM “Good Woman in Ireland”: 27. AC to VB, DG, and Alison [Samuel], February 16, 1996. AC to DG, March 1, 1996. M&s. Knopf first printing: Review of Selected Stories, Publishers Weekly.

  9. [DG], Draft catalogue copy. “Same memorandum”: Gail [Stewart] to Valerie [Jacobs], November 30, 1995: M&s. A.S. Byatt, “Alice Munro: One of the Great Ones”: D18, D14. John Updike, “Magnetic North” 11, 13. Dennis Duffy, “Something She’s Been Meaning to Tell Us”: 8, 9. James Wood, “Things Happen All the Time”: 31, 32. John Banville, “Revelations”: 20.

  10. DG to Avie Bennett and Valerie Jacobs, January 7, 1997. “Product Summary Report,” December 4, 1997. DG to Ken [Thomson], October 16, 1997. DG to AM, November 24, 1997. “Alice Munro Wins PEN-Malamud Award,” Globe and Mail, November 15, 1997: C8. Robert MacNeil: As quoted in DG, “Editor’s Note”on The Love of a Good Woman: M&s. Selected Stories withheld: DG to Diana Massiah, August 19, 1996: M&S. “Walker Brothers Cowboy,” Dance: 3. “What Do You Want to Know For?”: 220.

  11. “Bill’s Story,” Weekend Australian, July 22, 1995. AM, “Good Woman in Ireland.” VB to Bill Buford, May 9, 1996, May 28, 1996: New Yorker files. VB to DG, May 28, 1996: M&S. Bill Buford to AM, August 20, 1996, VB to Bill Buford, September 18, 1996, Bill Buford to VB, September 23, 1996, VB to Bill Buford, September 24, 1996, Bill Buford to VB, September 25, 1996: New Yorker files.

  12. Carol Beran, “The Luxury of Excellence”: 219, 213, passim. “Author’s Note,” Love: [x]. Cuts to “Love”: Dennis Duffy, “ ‘A Dark Sort of Mirror’ ”: 188–89. AM, June 19, 2003. Interview Alice Quinn, March 8, 2004. Interview Virginia Barber, January 14, 2003. Interview Charles McGrath, January 14, 2003. “The Face and Place of Poetry: Alice Quinn – The New Yorker”: www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/specials/poetry/p-quinn.html. Roger Angell: Alice Quinn, “The ‘Wholly Original’ Alice Munro.” VB to Bill Buford, October 30, 1997: New Yorker Files. Ellen Vanstone, “Saturday Night Scores Coup with Munro Tale ‘Jakarta,’ ” Globe and Mail, January 12, 1998: C5.

  13. AM, “Contributor’s Note,” Prize Stories 1997: 443. “Cortes Island,” Love 117, 140. DG to AC, May 6, 1998: M&s. DG to VB, February 12, 1998, VB to DG, March 9, 1998: M&s. Interview Jack Hodgins, April 21, 2004. Judy Stoffman, “Celebrating Alice Munro,” Toronto Star, November 1, 1998: D9. Judy Stoffman, “Munro
Wins Giller,” Toronto Star, November 4, 1998: D1, D4. National Book Critics: Kelly Heckler to “Everyone”: March 9, 1999: M&S.

  14. Aritha van Herk, “Between the Stirrup and the Ground”: 49, 50, 52. Michael Gorra, “Crossing the Threshold”: 6, 7. Frank, “Fiction in Review”: 168, 173–74. Following Updike, Frank also comments that Munro’s Selected Stories “seemed to come out of nowhere, with no explanation of why the stories were selected and without any attempt to present them within the context of her extraordinary development as a writer” (166). Barbara Croft, “Indirect Objects”: 15, 16. “Less Is More”: 14. Tamsin Todd, “The Love of a Good Woman”: 54, 55.

  15. AM to Helen Hoy, November 9, 1987: Private collection. AM, “Introduction,” Selected Stories: passim. “Spaceships Have Landed,” Paris Review: 276–77. Open Secrets proof: 752/04.3: 6.3. “Working for a Living”: 38.10.36.4.f4.

  Chapter 9

  1. “Introduction,” Selected Stories: xiii–xiv. Gzowski Globe and Mail interview: F4. “Home”: 153. A.S. Byatt, “Justice for Willa Cather”: 53. Judy Stoffman, “Munro Wins Giller,” Toronto Star, November 4, 1998: D1, D4. Judy Stoffman, “Authors Fest Numbers Rise,” Toronto Star, November 1, 2004: F2. Andrea Baille, “Munro Awarded Second Giller,” Toronto Star, November 12, 2004: A3.

  2. “The Albanian Virgin,” Open: 105. Gzowski Globe and Mail interview: F4. Prize information: M&s. Health: Douglas Gibson, “A Very Canadian Celebrity”: 10. AM, August 22, 2001.

  3. Buford proofs: “Post and Beam,” “Family Furnishings,” “Lying Under the Apple Tree.” Deborah Treisman to AM, July 9, 2001: New Yorker Files. Interview Deborah Treisman, March 10, 2004. “Best fiction out there”: Jonathan Bing, “The Write Stuff,” Variety, October 30, 2002.

  4. Douglas Gibson, “A Very Canadian Celebrity”: 9–10. M&S print run: DG to VB, January 7, 2002. Bestseller: Globe and Mail, October 13, 2001: M&s. Mona Simpson, “A Quiet Genius”: 128, 133, 134, 135. “Family Furnishings,” Hateship: 117. Ann Beattie, “Alice Munro’s Amazing Ordinary World”: D3. Merilyn Simonds, “Munro’s Wit Is Undiminished”: I1. Philip Marchand, “The Way Things Are”: D12. Catherine Lockerbie, “The Loving Literature of Alice Munro”: C15. Lorrie Moore, “Artship”: 41, 42. Tom Deignan, “Life in a Sentence”: 26, 27. Franklin, “Assent and Lamentation”: 33, 36, 37. Michael Ravitch, “Fiction in Review”: 160, 161, 164, 165, 170. Benjamin Markovits, “Suspicion of Sentiment”: 26. John McGahern, “Heroines of Their Lives”: 23, 24.

  5. Patricia Hluchy, “Alice Munro”: 67. Ross and Carol Hamilton, “Story of Munro’s Early Life Indicates Star in the Making,” Wingham Advance-Times, December 23, 1998. Brenda Burke, “Alice Munro Collection Planned for Museum,” Wingham Advance-Times, January 13, 1999. Catherine MacDonald, “More Suggestions Received on Ways to Recognize Alice Munro,” Wingham Advance-Times, January 20, 1999. Program, Dedication of “Alice Munro Literary Garden,” July 10, 2002. Judy Stoffman, “Jubilation in Jubilee,” Toronto Star, July 11, 2002: A28. Bennett: Stoffman and also Jessica Leeder, “Friends, Family Salute Munro’s Literary Garden,” National Post, July 11, 2002: A7. Virginia Barber, Remarks at Dedication of Alice Munro Literary Garden, July 10, 2002. AM, June 20, 2003.

  6. Barber quotation: Leeder, “Friends, Family Salute Munro’s Literary Garden.” Excised passage: “Lying Under the Apple Tree” proofs May 15, 2002. Deborah Treisman to AM, May 30, 2002. Photograph: New Yorker Files. “Lying Under the Apple Tree”: 88. “What Do You Want to Know For?”: 215. Simpson, “A Quiet Genius”: 131. AM, “Foreword,” Castle Rock: x. “Last book”: AM, April 23, 2004.

  7. DG to VB, August 17, 2000. VB to DG, August 25, 2000. DG to VB, October 28, 2002. VB to DG, November 5, 2002: M&S. Story Selection: e-mail David Staines, December 28, 2004. Jane Urquhart, “Afterword”: 416.

  8. Knopf first printing: Rev. of Runaway, Publishers Weekly. Philip Marchand, “Time Passing”: D13. Bruce Erskine, “Mastery of Munro”: NS11. A. Alvarez, “Life Studies”: 23. Jonathan Franzen, “Alice’s Wonderland”: 1, 14, 15, 16. Lorrie Moore, “Leave Them and Love Them”: 125, 127, 128.

  9. Mary Hawthorne, “Disconnected Realities”: 17, 18. Karl Miller, “Not Bad for a Housewife”: 18. 2004 Rogers Writers’ Trust Citation: M&s. Munro mania in New York: Rebecca Caldwell, “Alice Munro,” Globe and Mail, December 27, 2004: R6-7. Trip home with Sheila: AM, April 23, 2004. “Soon,” Runaway: 124–25. “Originally”: “Soon” mss. “July 30/03”: New Yorker Files. Lives: 254. “A Real Life,” Open: 80.

  Chapter 10

  1. Judy Stoffman, “Making a Short Story Long”: H10. AM, “Maxwell”: 40, 47. AM, “Writing. Or, Giving Up Writing”: 300. “A Conversation with Alice Munro”: www.reading-group-cnter.knopfdoubleday.com/2010/01/08/alice-munro-interview/. July 16, 2010. “Doubtful”: AM, August 21, 2001. E-mail Charles Baxter, September 10, 2010. AM, “The Novels of William Maxwell”: 31. AM, “Maxwell”: 47.

  2. AM, “Maxwell”: 35. Stoffman, “Making a Short Story Long”: H10. AM, June 14, 2010.

  3. Lorrie Moore, “Leave Them and Love Them”: 128. A revised version of “Home” was published in Britain in the New Statesman in late 2001, a fact not noted in the first version of this biography.

  4. Runaway sales figures: E-mail Alison Samuel, August 25, 2010; McClelland & Stewart; Interview Ann Close, July 21, 2010.

  5. This book was published concurrently in Canada by McClelland & Stewart, without Everyman’s select bibliography and chronology but with Atwood’s introduction, as Munro’s Best. It was published as Carried Away by Everyman in Britain in October 2008.

  6. AM, April 24, 2004. “The Mount Honors Women of Achievement.” The Mount 24 (Winter 2004): 8. “Alice Munro Given Lifetime Achievement Honour.” Cbc.ca, December 3, 2007. “The Tyranny of Library Hierarchy”: http://librarysupporter.blogspot.com/2005/05/tyranny-of-library-hierarchy.html. August 30, 2010. Ben Marcus, “Why Experimental Fiction Threatens to Destroy Publishing, Jonathan Franzen, and Life as We Know It: A Correction.” Harper’s, October 2005: 39–52. David Laskin, “Tales of Love and Sorrow in a Singular City: Alice Munro’s Vancouver.” New York Times, June 11, 2006: TR 9, 12.

  7. “Alice Munro Given Lifetime Achievement Honour.” Richard Helm, “Literary Icon Alice Munro Expected to Retire Tonight.” Winnipeg Free Press, June 20, 2006: D4. Richard Helm, “Editor Insists New Book Won’t Be Munro’s Last.” Edmonton Journal, June 22, 2006: D4.

  8. AM to DG, October 13, 1980: Macmillan: 429.3. AM, VB, “2006 Medal Day.” The MacDowell Colony 25.2 (Winter 2006): 10, 11.

  9. Central Subject: Eleanor Wachtel, “Alice Munro: A Life in Writing: A Conversation”: 278. Munro made the same point when she was interviewed by Deborah Treisman on October 3, 2008. A summary of this interview: www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/festival/2008/10/things-you-may.html. December 3, 2010. Notebook drafts: 38.12.3, 38.10.39.f13. AM, “No Advantages,” Castle Rock: 6, 7.

  10. Robert Thacker, “A ‘Booming Tender Sadness’: Alice Munro’s Irish.” AM, June 19, 2003. AM, “Meneseteung,” Friend: 73. Jim Dills and Gloria (Stark) Brown, Halton’s Scotch Block: 54. AM, “Messenger.” Castle Rock: 347, 348–49.

  11. AM, “Chaddeleys and Flemings: 1. Connection.” Moons: 6. Jennifer Rudolph Walsh to Deborah Treisman, March 7, 2005. “Laidlaws II: The View from Castle Rock” (140 pp., dated by AM February 7, 2005). Deborah Treisman to David Remnick, March 24, 2005. New Yorker files. AM, “Foreword,” Castle Rock: x.

  12. AM, “The Ticket,” Castle Rock: 258–59, 281, 283, 261, 260. “The Yellow Afternoon”: 37.16.34. f1–11. “The Ticket” was submitted to the New Yorker – along with “Dimensions” and “What Do You Want to Know For?”; its editors bought only “Dimensions.” Shannon Firth (assistant to Jennifer Rudolph Walsh) to Deborah Treisman, November 30, 2005. New Yorker files.

  13. AM, August 18, 2008. Interview with Treisman at New Yorker Festival, October 3, 2008. “Alice Munro Reveals Cancer Fight.” October 22, 2009. www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story /2009/10/22/alice-munro-cancer.html. October 25, 2009.

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nbsp; 14. E-mail Claire Tomalin, August 11, 2010. Megan Hoak (VB assistant) to DG November 28, 2000. New Yorker files. Courting Johanna (June 18 – September 6, 2008): 2008 Blyth Festival Program. Interview Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, July 20, 2010.

  15. Interview Carmen Callil, August 9, 2010. Interview Alison Samuel, July 28, 2010. Sales figures: E-mail Alison Samuel, August 25, 2010.

  16. Interview Fiammetta Rocco, August 9, 2010. Interview Jane Smiley, August 30, 2010. Douglas Gibson. “Dublin College Honours Alice Munro.” Globe and Mail: www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/dublin-college-honours-alice-munro/article1198858/. June 30, 2009. Jane Smiley, “Chairs Speech 2009”: www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/mbi-archive/chairsspeech2009. August 2, 2010.

  17. E-mail Daniel Menaker, August 17, 2003. Interview Ann Close, July 21, 2010.

  18. For a brief discussion of Marchand’s “The Problem of Alice Munro,” see my own review of Too Much Happiness.

  19. “Too Much Generosity.” Globe and Mail, September 1, 2009: A12. Interview Ben Metcalf, July 27, 2010. Interview Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, July 20, 2010. AM, June 14, 2010.

  Epilogue

  1. Roger Angell, “Storyville”: 107. Roger Angell, Internal Critique of “Silence,” by AM: New Yorker Files. “Soon,” Runaway: 125. Boyle interview. Fragment: 37.18.10.1. Draft “Everything”: 38.12.31. Letter James Reaney, March 24, 2003.

  Acknowledgements

  1. “Dulse,” Moons: 39.

  2. Letter, AM, March 9, 2000: Private collection.

  3. A.S. Byatt, “Justice for Willa Cather”: 53. AM, “The Colonel’s Hash Resettled”: 181. Janet Malcolm, “Gertrude Stein’s War”: 70. “A fine and lucky benevolence”: “Material,” Something: 43.

 

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