(Andre Deutsch, 1954 dj; designer: indecipherable cover signature)
(the hyped 1955 Popular Library pb version of The Acrobats)
(Andre Deutsch, 1955 dj; cover: R.F. Micklewright)
(sexy 1965 paperback Library pb)
(Andre Deutsch, 1957 dj by Heather Standring)
(Apprenticeship in process was 1st published in 2 issues of Maclean’s–Sept. 26 & Oct.10, 1959; the nifty illustrations were done by Huntley Brown; first issue above)
(Huntley Brown did this illustration in the 2nd issue which included the wild bar mitzvah script)
(signed 1959 Andre Deutsch; cover: Bernard Blatch; author blurb on back of book)
(original Alliance VHS, 106 mins.)
(1974 McClelland & Stewart illustrated pb)
(left: Alliance DVD, 121 mins. Ted Kotcheff Director’s Cut; right: BTC Audio Bks CDs, read by Paul Hecht)
(1963 M & S pb; cover: B. Stanley Jones)
(left: 1966 M & S dj; cover: the great Alice & Martin Provensen; right: 2007 Galafilm/E1 Entertainment/CBC movie adaptation, 3 hrs.)
(1969 M & S dj by Vlasta van Kampen)
(left and middle: inscribed 1975 Andre Deutsch, dj byFritz Wegner; right: 1988 Caedmon cassette; reader: Christopher Plummer, music: Louis Milgrom & Robert Milnes)
(left: 1980 M & S dj; cover: William Fox/Associates; middle & right: rare 1986 Key Video/Fox VHS directed by Ted Kotcheff)
(1984 M & S dj; jacket drawing David Levine, design: Sara Eisenman; back cover: table of contents)
(signed 1997 Chatto & Windus dj; jacket illustration: player-piano music supplied by Cambridge Pianola Co, Cambridge, UK; “Canadian Capers” played by Max Kortlander)
(left: 2010 DVD by Serendipidity/Lyla Films/Fandango/eone; right: poster)
(left: scarce 1997 CBC VHS; right: rare CD-ROM; Historica/7th Floor Media)
(a recommended book about Richler; 2004 M & S dj)
Montreal-born son of a scrap yard dealer, Mordecai Richler (1931-2001) was a writer for CBC in the early 1950s before going abroad to the UK (1954-1972) to write film scripts such as A Room at the Top. He also wrote short stories and novels beginning with The Acrobats, his first novel, in 1954.
Richler had a penchant for satire as seen in The Incomparable Atuk (1963) and Cocksure (1968), the latter which was a GG winner in 1969. Many other books followed (some also made into films) including The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959), St. Urbain’s Horseman (1972 GG award for fiction), and Barney’s Version , a 1997 Giller Prize winner.
He also wrote some popular children’s books, the Jacob Two-Two series. Richler was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2001 and, posthumously in 2015, was named a Citizen of Honour in Montreal, where a gazebo dedicated to him is planned.