Speaking in the Past Tense

Herb Wyile

Description

“Speaking in the Past Tense participates in an expanding critical dialogue on the writing of historical fiction, providing a series of reflections on the process from the perspective of those souls intrepid enough to step onto what is, practically by definition, contested territory.”

— Herb Wyile, from the Introduction

The extermination of the Beothuk ... the exploration of the Arctic ... the experiences of soldiers in the trenches during World War I ... the foibles of Canada’s longest-serving prime minister ... the Ojibway sniper who is credited with 378 wartime kills—these are just some of the people and events discussed in these candid and wide-ranging interviews with eleven authors whose novels are based on events in Canadian history.

These sometimes startling conversations take the reader behind the scenes of the novels and into the minds of their authors. Through them we explore the writers’ motives for writing, the challenges they faced in gathering information and presenting it in fictional form, the sometimes hostile reaction they faced after publication, and, perhaps most interestingly, the stories that didn’t make it into their novels.

Speaking in the Past Tense provides fascinating insights into the construction of national historical narratives and myths, both those familiar to us and those that are still being written.

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 22 octobre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781554588251
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

SPEAKING IN THE PAST TENSE
Canadian Novelists on Writing Historical Fiction
Herb Wyile
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Wyile, Herb, 1961- Speaking in the past tense : Canadian novelists on writing historical fiction /Herb Wyile.
Includes bibliographical references. ISBN -13: 978-0-88920-511-6 ISBN -10: 0-88920-511-6
1. Historical fiction, Canadian-History and criticism. 2. Historical fiction, Canadian-Authorship. 3. Novelists, Canadian-Interviews. I. Title.
PS 8191. H 5 W 935 2007 C 813 .081 C 2006-906460-1
2007 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada www.wlupress.wlu.ca
Cover design by P.J. Woodland. Cover image by Frances Anne Hopkins, detail from Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior (1869, oil on canvas), courtesy of the Glenbow Museum Collection. Text design by Catharine Bonas-Taylor.

This book is printed on Ancient Forest Friendly paper (100% post-consumer recycled).
Printed in Canada
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher s attention will be corrected in future printings.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Interviews:
Making History: Guy Vanderhaeghe
Walking Where His Feet Can Walk: Rudy Wiebe
Confessions of a Historical Geographer: Jane Urquhart
An Afterlife Endlessly Revised: Wayne Johnston
We Have to Recover Their Bodies : George Elliott Clarke
Ghosts Are Our Allies: Margaret Sweatman
History from the Workingman s End of the Telescope : Fred Stenson
Pushing Out the Poison: Joseph Boyden
In the Lair of the Minotaur: Heather Robertson
The Iceman Cometh Across: Thomas Wharton
The Living Haunt the Dead: Michael Crummey
Selected Bibliography
Illustrations
1. Jerry Potts, with rifle. Glenbow Museum NA -1237-1
2. Jerry Potts, interpreter with the North West Mounted Police and First Nations people, possibly at Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. Glenbow Museum NA -3811-2b
3. Mistahi Maskula (Big Bear, ca. 1825-1888). Library and Archives Canada C -001873
4. Gabriel Dumont. Glenbow Museum PA -2218-1
5. Thomas D Arcy McGee. Library and Archives Canada C -016749
6. Portrait of Walter Seymour Allward. Library and Archives Canada PA -103158
7. The War Memorial at Vimy Ridge. Reproduced with the permission of Veterans Affairs Canada, 2006. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, 2006
8. The Spirit of Sacrifice , Vimy War Memorial. Reproduced with the permission of Veterans Affairs Canada, 2006. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, 2006
9. Joseph Smallwood. Library and Archives Canada PA -128080
10. Robert Peary in the Arctic. U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce-People Collection b3552

11. Frederick Cook. Courtesy of the Ohio State University Archives, Frederick A. Cook Society Collection RG 56.17, image 34_2a
12. Police photo of Rufus Hamilton. Library and Archives Canada C -147475
13. Police photo of George Hamilton. Library and Archives Canada 0131147
14. Winnipeg General Strike leaders at Stony Mountain Penitentiary, ca. 1920. Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg Strike 35 ( N12322 )
15. Thomas Scott, who was executed by Louis Riel at Fort Garry, Manitoba. Glenbow Museum NA -576-1
16. John Rowand. Provincial Archives of Manitoba, John Rowand 1
17. Sir George Simpson, 1857. Library and Archives Canada C -023580
18. William Gladstone and granddaughter Nellie (later Mrs. H.A. Riviere, Pincher Creek, Alberta). Glenbow Museum NA -184-23
19. James Jimmy Jock Bird, Blackfoot interpreter. Glenbow Museum NA -360-21
20. Reverend Robert T. Rundle, first Protestant missionary in North-West Canada. Glenbow Museum NA -642-1
21. Francis Pegahmagabow. Courtesy of the William Hammond Mathers Museum, Indiana University
22. Talbot Mercer Papineau, officer in the Princess Patricia s Canadian Light Infantry, with his dog Bobs. Library and Archives Canada C 13224
23. Inspector John Leopold. Reg. #0.333-retired on 30 November 1952 as Superintendant, 1 Sept. 1942. Copyright Library and Archives Canada/Royal Canadian Mounted Police collection/ PA -210766. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada (2005)
24. Vivian Macmillan. Courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Alberta A .8007
25. Rt. Hon. W.L. Mackenzie King visiting Berlin. Library and Archives Canada PA -119013
26. Igor Gouzenko on TV . Library and Archives Canada PA -129625, courtesy of The (Montreal) Gazette
27. James Carnegie, Earl of Southesk, 1827-1905. Glenbow Museum NA -1355-1
28. A.P. Coleman. Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies V 1- ACOOP -82
29. Brewster tour buses at the terminus of the Athabasca glacier, Columbia Icefield. Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies V 92- PA 64-12
30. Bill Peyto, Hugh Stutfield and J.N. Collie, 1898. Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies V 62- PA -7
31. Demasduwit (Mary March), 1819. Library and Archives Canada C -087698
32. John Peyton Jr., J.P. The Rooms, Provincial Archives Division, Newfoundland and Labrador A 17-105
33. Capt. David Buchan, The Rooms, Provincial Archives Division, Newfoundland and Labrador C 1-213
Author Photos
Guy Vanderhaeghe photo by Margaret Vanderhaeghe, courtesy of McClelland Stewart .
Rudy Wiebe photo by J.D. Sloan, courtesy of Random House of Canada .
Jane Urquhart photo by Elsa Trillit, courtesy of McClelland Stewart .
Wayne Johnston photo by Neil Graham, courtesy of Random House of Canada .
George Elliott Clarke photo by Geeta Paray-Clarke, courtesy of George Elliott Clarke .
Margaret Sweatman photo by Brian Hydesmith, courtesy of Random House of Canada .
Fred Stenson photo by Greg Garrard, courtesy of Greg Garrard .
Joseph Boyden photo by Stephanie Beeley Photography, courtesy of Penguin Canada .
Heather Robertson photo courtesy of Heartland Books .
Thomas Wharton photo courtesy of Thomas Wharton .
Michael Crummey photo by Holly Hogan, courtesy of Michael Crummey .
Acknowledgements
This project was largely made possible by a series of Acadia University Research Fund grants, which paid for the travel costs of the majority of these interviews and funded the illustrations for the book. I am also extremely grateful to a number of people for playing host to me while I was criss-crossing the country or for otherwise helping to facilitate the interviews; my thanks to Cliff Lobe and Gloria Borrows, Geraldine and Hugh Hind, David Buchanan, Pamela Banting, John Mahon and Shelagh Wildsmith, Cameron Malcolm and Dianne Willisko, Doris Wolf and Paul DiPasquale for their hospitality and aid. I would also like to express my gratitude to Sharon Klein at Knopf Canada for helping to organize the interview with Wayne Johnston. Thanks go also to Wanda Campbell and Eszter Schwenke for their feedback on the interview with Jane Urquhart, and I am particularly indebted to Cynthia Sugars for her invaluable advice on the introduction. Tom Scott, Bill King, and T.D. McGee also played a crucial role in bringing about this project. I would like to give special thanks to Jacqueline Larson at Wilfrid Laurier University Press for her enthusiasm for the project from the get-go and thanks to the rest of staff at WLUP for shepherding the manuscript through the publication process.
Interviews, I discovered, are a lot of work (go figure!), and I am extremely grateful to the Acadia students who helped prepare and transcribe some of these interviews. Thanks go first of all to Katherine Lusk for her help on the interviews with Heather Robertson and Jane Urquhart, and likewise to Erin Demings for her help with the latter. Thanks go also to Mpho Marupeng for her work on the interviews with Margaret Sweatman and Guy Vanderhaege, and to Daniel Kyte for helping with the interview with Wayne Johnston. Finally, I am grateful to Amy Heffernan for her work on the interviews with Rudy Wiebe and Fred Stenson and to Robyn Lippett for helping to proofread the manuscript.
Tracking down the illustrations for Speaking in the Past Tense was a challenge in itself, and I am very grateful for the assistance of staff at Library and Archives Canada, The Rooms (Archives Division, Newfoundland and Labrador), the Glenbow Museum, the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, the Provincial Archives of Alberta, the Frederick Cook Society, Veterans Affairs Canada, the Provincial Archives of Manitoba, and the Mathers Museum at Indiana University.
The Iceman Cometh Across: An Interview with Thomas Wharton was previously published in Past Matters/Choses du Pass : History in Canadian Fiction , a special issue of Studies in Canadian Literature (27.1) that I co-edited with Jennifer Andrews and Robert Viau in 2002. Confessions of a Historical Geographer: An Interview with Jane