CanLitBooks

(his first recording, Smithsonian Folkways CD, 1957; several tracks, with other readings by A.J.M. Smith, Irving Layton, Louis Dudek, F.R. Scott, and A.M. Klein; scarce 1959 pb collection, published in 500 copies, also includes Phyllis Webb)

(rare wrap-around pb, McClelland & Stewart, 1961; design by Frank Newfeld)

(UK dj version Secker & Warburg, 1963, cover: Barry Trengove; right: US dj version: Viking, 1963, cover with nude dressing R.M. Powers, photo: Harry Hess)

(left: Avon pb, 1965, cover with nude: Mort Engle; middle: Avon, 1970 pb, unacknowledged cover photo; right: movie later made from novel, Alliance Atlantis–Film Tonic DVD, 2002, directed by Bernar Hebert, includes Cohen songs)

(left: 1965 documentary released on DVD in 2004 by NFB, contains 4 extra Cohen-related videos; right: actually his first title originally released in 1956, later rereleased in this 1966 McClelland & Stewart pb, photo: NFB)

(left: the 1967 Bantam pb, uncredited art; 1966 McClelland & Stewart dj; drawings: Harold Town, design: Frank Newfeld; after this novel, Cohen turned more to songwriting and recording)

(left: rare 1966 CBC LP featuring 7 Cohen poems–some featured in the 1965 documentary above; right: scarce Aug/Sept 1967 issue of Sing Out! folkie songwriter magazine, there are 2 articles on Cohen, 1 by Buffy Sainte-Marie, and the music chart for “Suzanne” which become an iconic Cohen anthem, first popularized by Judy Collins and Noel Harrison–45 rpm version)

(left: Cohen’s 1st album for Columbia, 1967, after he was signed by the great John Hammond in Cohen’s room at the Chelsea Hotel; right: his 1st songbook with photos, Amsco/Collier-Macmillan, 1969, cover photo: John Berg)

(left: 1968 McClelland & Stewart pb,cover design: Mel Williamson, photomontage: C.P. Noyes; Cohen turned down the Governor-General award for it; right: Cohen’s 1972 European tour as captured by Tony Palmer, DVD 2010, Machat, cover: Picasso “Dove of Peace”, Succession Picasso/DACS)

(the companion book for the odd meandering ’80s documentary Harry Rasky made, shown on CBC, which hasn’t yet made it to DVD; Mosaic pb, 2001, cover: Amy Land; Rasky also made a significant documentary on Northrop Frye called “The Great Teacher”, likewise shown on tv but never released on DVD)

(rare inscribed McClelland & Stewart dj, 1984, design: Michael van Elsen)

(left: rare 1988 Sony VHS long out-of-print, 15 live performances, originally shown on BBC; packing artwork: CBS Records; right: illustrated souvenir program from Cohen’s 1993 tour, which was in Edmonton at the Jubilee Auditorium–flowers passed out to all ladies in the lobby after the show)

(rare signed with early chop of Cohen’s ‘unified heart’ design, 1993 US ed., Pantheon dj; photo; Edward Gajdel, design: Kathleen Di Grado)

(left: rare 1997 Wise Publications pb songbook never released in US or Canada, cover photoGered Mankowitz, design: Redferns; middle: 50 songs as listed on back cover; right: yet another comeback and perhaps his strongest album of new/er songs, Columbia, 2001 CD)

(rare signed and stamped US 2006 HarperCollins dj; jacket design: Michael Petit, jacket art: Cohen; in fact there are many drawings throughout this book)

(rare photo of Cohen signing the above book with Anjani doing the stamping)

(Philip Glass had long wanted to do a song cycle about the above book with Cohen reading and other voices and music; 2007 Orange Mountain Music; CD cover on left; middle: art by Cohen; right: Lorca Cohen photo of collaborators for this not-so-well-publicized project)

(left: as good as it gets: one of Cohen’s best live incarnations–2008, London; 2009 Sony DVD; photos & design: Lorca Cohen, Michael Petit, Robert Yager,  James Cumpsty; right: another unexpected release: Chrome Dreams, 2009 CD, 72 mins., of interviews from 1961 to 2008)

(left: another nice, unexpected Cohen poem collection by Everyman Library Pocket Poets series, Knopf, 2001 dj; photo & design: Dominique Issermann, Barbara de Wilde; right: 2012 Columbia CD; cover design & photo: Cohen & Kezban Ozcan; in the first of the last three albums, you can sense Cohen preparing for death)

(And when you thought he was done touring and had nothing else new to say–left: another remarkable 2013 live concert, 2014 Sony CDs and DVD, design & photos: Gary Kelly, BrendanDuffy.ie; right: 2014 Columbia LP & CD, design & photo: Michael Petit & Kezban Ozcan)

(Cohen speaks for himself, 1966-2012–a labor of love by ed. Jeff Burger; Chicago Review Press, 2014 dj; design: Jonathan Hahn, photo: Ann Johansson) With the publication of this book and several other bios, You Want it

Born in Westmount, Montreal, Leonard(Norman) Cohen (1934-2016) attended McGill U and Columbia U before spending a lot of his 20s in Greece. He began his career by writing poetry and novels (The Favourite Game, 1963, Beautiful Losers, 1966) before deciding to change directions, and move more into performing and recording with his growing song catalogue. His early cynicism about literature culminated in him turning down the 1968 GG Award for his Selected Poems. His work and reputation are not likely to be equalled in the future by any Canadian poet, songwriter, and solo male performer.

As Cohen had said, music paid much better and he went into it full-time with the help of musical friends like Judy Collins. As shown above, his many albums of mostly romantic, dark, cynical songs have transformed him into a major iconic pop figure and cult figure on the international music scene. He was and still is Canada’s best known singer-songwriter and poet.

(rare signed 1968 Clarke, Irwin & Co. dj, uncredited artist)

(rare signed, 1967 Clarke, Irwin & Co. dj, Governor-General-Award-winner; design: Mary Cserepy)

(left: pb back cover of An Exchange of Gifts, Irwin, 1985, photo: NFB; rare signed dj, Clarke, Irwin & Co., 1974, uncredited design)

(Dec. 10, 1968 signed typed letter mentioning his journalism career)

Stanley, NS-born Alden (Albert) Nowlan (1933-1983) was largely self-educated, eventually producing 26 books of poetry, 6 books of fiction, 5 books of drama, and 5 non-fiction books. He won the 1967 Governor General Award for his first poetry collection Bread, Wine and Salt. For a long time he was also a journalist and became the editor of the Hartland Observer. Nowlan was also a writer-in-residence at UNB and he is buried in Poet’s Corner of Forest Hill cemetery in Fredericton.

(left: scarce LP of musical version of Ryga’s famous play with Chief Dan George, Paul Horn, and Ann Mortifee, Kerygam Records, artwork: Frank Lewis, 1972; right: Longmans dj, 1963; cover art: Jerry Lazare)

George Ryga (1932-1987) was born in Deep Creek, AB and raised in a farming community and eventually settled in Summerland, BC. He wrote poetry, radio and tv plays, stage plays, film scripts, short stories, and novels that are usually critical of society. Ryga is best known for his ground-breaking play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe which was performed on record by Chief Dan George, Ann Mortifee, and Paul Horn. It also morphed into a ballet performed by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

(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.

(Macpherson’s rare 2nd book with a rare signed note in which she corrects the recipient for thinking/assuming she (Jay) was a man!)

(the rare 1957 hb, Oxford University Press Canada; design derived from Jean de Beaugrand for the arms of the Dauphin–1604)

(scarce inscribed 1968 pb version with extra poems added to the original ed.)

(rare signed 1974 pb Saannes Publications)

London, UK-born Jay (Jean) Macpherson (1931-2012) wrote symbolic mythological poetry for the most part. After arriving in Canada in NL, she went to high school in Ottawa, Carleton, McGill, and U of t in her university years. Studying with Northrop Frye marked the direction that her writing would take after that. Her high point was when The Boatman won the Governor General Award in 1958. She taught at Victoria College from 1957 to 1996 and produced 9 collections of poetry in total.

(1st US ed. McGraw-Hill, 1973 dj; cover: Stan Skardinski0; based on 1968 Canadian version)

(left: Douglas Gibson/M & S  dj, 1986; cover painting: Alex Colville’s “Elm Tree at Horton Landing”, AGO; middle: rare Munro reading of “The Progress of Love”, American Audio Prose Library, Inc., 1987; right: rare audio interview on cassette by American Audio Prose, 1987)

(1996 signed slipcased ed., Borzoi/Knopf)

(Munro was honoured by Canada Post with an envelope and stamps in 2015.07.10 and earlier–above–by the Canadian Mint in a $5 Fine Silver Coin, my example used)

(recommended–the first major critical overview: 2005 Douglas Gibson dj; Peter Sibbald (photo)

Alice (Ann) Munro (1931-2024) was born in Wingham, ON and has produced over 20 remarkable collections of short stories. She has been called ‘our Chekhov’, a gifted, master, internationally-renowned storyteller. Her first collection, Dance of the Happy Shades, won the 1968 GG award for fiction as did her Who Do You Think You Are? (1978), and The Progress of Love (1986).

She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013 and Canada bestowed special honours on her via the Mint and Canadian P.O.  Munro previously lived in Victoria, BC, where she once worked at Munro’s Books, a bookshop with her ex-husband Neil. I used the stories “Images”, “Boys and Girls”, “Forgiveness in Families”, and “The Shining Houses” in my story anthologies.

(Talonbooks, 1975 pb; cover: “Dream with House, bed and Scraper” by Judith Lodge; photo by Betty Fairbank; I used the story “House” in Inside Stories II; Harcourt, 1987)

(signed Naiad Press pb, 1985; cover: Susannah L. Kelly)

Born in Plainfield, NJ, Jane (Vance) Rule (1931-2007) had dyslexia when she was young., but later became a successful writer. In 1964, she published Desert of the Heart about two lesbians who fall in love, but only after 22 rejections from publishers. She taught at UBC and then moved to Galiano Island for the rest of her life. She was inducted into the Order of BC (1998) and the Order of Canada (2007). Rule was a strong short story writer and I selected “A Television Drama”, “House”, and “You Cannot Judge a Pumpkin’s Happiness by the Smile Upon His Face” for inclusion in a few of my textbooks.

(signed 1997 Viking Penguin dj; cover contributors:  Kamil Vojnar/Photonica, John Scully, Spencer Francey Peters)

(signed 1988 Viking Penguin dj; cover; David Wyman & Blair Drawson; photo originally by Elisabeth Feryn)

(TLS by Findley, 1988, in book above)

(signed, numbered ed. 1997, Harbourfront Reading Series)

Timothy (Irving Frederick) Findley (1930-2002), known as ‘Tiff’ to his friends, was born in Toronto and began his career as an actor in productions like Hamlet (London) and The Matchmaker (London, New York); he participated also in the first season at Stratford, ON before moving more into fiction  and playwriting.  He wrote for CBC (The National Dream and Jalna) which is how he met William Whitehead, his life partner with whom he shared a life at Stone Orchard near Cannington, ON.

Findley won the GG award for fiction in 1978 with his novel The Wars, calling his style Southern Ontario Gothic. A number of movies were made from his books including Demented, The Wars, and The Piano Man’s Daughter. In 2002 he was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame. Findley died in Brignoles, France near a house he lived part of the year in at Cotignac.

(signed McGraw-Hill Ryerson: 1973 dj; photo: Canart Films)

(left: Dell pb, 1987, cover: David Wyman, made into a film; right: Signet/NAL pb: 1976, his 1st film)

(based on Alice Munro’s “The Bear Came over the Mountain”, an excellent film in which Pinsent got strong reviews for his role as Julie Christie’s husband; directed by Sarah Polley, one of our country’s best directors; recommended Mongrel DVD, 2006)

Born in Grand Falls, NL, Gordon Edward Pinsent (1930-) was first an actor in MB, Toronto, and then Stratford. He became the star of Quentin Duergens MP CBC tv series which ran from 1966 to 1969. He went on to write two novels which became movies The Rowdyman and John and the Missus. Pinsent has also appeared in Who Has Seen the Wind, A Gift to Last, The Red Green Show, Due South, Wind at My Back, The Republic of Doyle as well as Sarah Polley’s Away from Her 2007 movie based on an Alice Munro story. Pinsent won the GG Performing Arts award in 2004 and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1998.

(1964 McClelland & Stewart softcover, with 1st illustration)

(1963 McClelland & Stewart dj and green  design hardcover underneath)

(1968 McClelland & Stewart–Heaven, Take My Hand by David Weisstub: the sensuous hardcover and a sample illustration)

(left: 1981 Gage hardcover; 1st of series for senior high general/non-academic students  and courses in Canada; right: sample illustration from bizarre unit)

(3 more illustrations from above book; note 2 Canadian works illustrated)

(the 2nd book in the series and an illustration for crime unit)

(2 more illustrations for the above title)

(the 3rd book and an illustration for a story by our top Canadian SF writer)

(left: 2008 Porcupine’s  Quill–one of our top Canadian publishers; basically an autobio of Newfeld’s life; the dedication inside to me acknowledging our previous connection; right: Frank’s own self-portrait)

(Da–a journal of the printing arts–one of our excellent publishers; no. 56; spring/summer 2005–feature on Newfeld at M & S; no. 65, fall/winter 2009: interview and article)

……………………………

Sometimes we get very lucky. I was just starting out on a successful school textbook career (numerous authorizations across Canada and over 1 million copies sold) that would span some 4 decades. My publisher rep Patrick (Paddy) Drysdale and Anthony (Tony) Luengo–the top textbook editor in Canada told me that one of Canada’s top designers would be working on my first project, the Connections series.

Little did I realize it was the artist who had illustrated many classy M & S books and Alligator Pie, making the latter a bona-fide Canadian classic. I’m sure Dennis Lee would tell you, as I will, that having Frank Newfeld illustrate your books is a delight and possibly more than 50% of the reason why those 4 books all did so well in the market.  He has been, IMHO, the top, most memorable, unique book designer and illustrator of our time.

Many of you, unless you’ve read Alligator Pie or were a student using one of those textbooks, have likely not seen any of those striking illustrations so I’ve included some from my books to show what Frank was busy doing in the late 70s-early 80s. Much later I thanked him for his fantastic work on that project and he kindly signed a copy of his book (above). As my editor Tony Luengo used to say, Frank is quite the gentleman, and I am extremely lucky to have been connected with him way back when.

Incidentally, his work appears in blog entries before and after this one. Keep your eyes open as you read this blog; he was truly that prolific and influential.