(in the ’50s and ’60s, Canadian magazines like Chatelaine and Maclean’s offered a market for our short story writers–in this issue, as well Gabrielle Roy and Mazo de la Roche; “The Quarrel”–one of Buckler’s best stories was published in the July 1959 issue of Chatelaine & signed by Buckler)
(1952, Henry Holt dj with bio blurb on back; jacket design by R.M. Powers)
(1954 pb, Signet/New American Library; cover–Zuckerberg)
(McClelland & Stewart, 1963 dj and bio blurb on back; design: the great Frank Newfeld)
(McClelland & Stewart, 1968 dj; dj design: Guy Fleming; right: evocative line drawings by Walter Richards)
(1975 McClelland & Stewart dj; Robert D. Chambers, ed.)
(1977 McClelland & Stewart dj; scarce flatsigned by EB; jacket design by David Shaw & Associates)
(2 awesomely rare signed letters from above copy of The Mountain and the Valley; Ross Graves’ book–Graves–referenced in letter 1–was from Upper Stewiacke, N.S., and was an educator and historian who taught at S. Colchester High School, Brookfield, N.S.
(Bruce Bates unknown, but must have been connected to Graves since this letter was also found in Graves’ book)
Ernest Buckler (1908-1984) was born in Dalhousie West, NS. He earned an MA in Philosophy at U of T in 1930. After that, he worked for an insurance company, but, because of illness, retired to the family farm in 1936 where he wrote from for the rest of his life. Buckler was a strong short-story writer, and also wrote radio plays, magazine articles, book reviews, and newspaper columns. He was a CanLit master of prose and his diction and syntax are wonderfully unique and memorable. I had the distinct pleasure of including the following Buckler stories in my various textbooks: “The Harness”, “Long, Long After School”, “The Clumsy One”, and “Penny in the Dust”.