As part of our mapping of literary Ontario, we're highlighting five things about literary life in communities throughout the province. What do our cities, towns and villages have to offer writers, readers and the curious? Follow Five Things Literary to find out. Today Open Book returns to Kingston, a city abuzz with literary activity of all kinds.
Five Things Literary: Kingston was contributed by Heather Home, the Public Services/Private Records Archivist at Queen's University Archives in Kingston since September 2001. Prior to arriving at Queen's, Heather worked at the Provincial Archives of Alberta and CBC Vancouver. Her current research interests include the documentation and conservation of media arts heritage, early 20th century Canadian women artists and the use of archival material in the creation of imaginative works.
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1. If the number of writers living in a city (or environs) can be used as a qualifying measurement for what makes a city “literary,” Kingston ranks somewhere up near the top of the list (based on a per capita basis using some form of logarithm which I actually wouldn’t know how to create or support, so, really, I can’t say this definitively, but I am saying it). The sheer number of writers that hail from the Kingston area or currently call it home is so numerous I fear listing them in case I miss someone. So, as a small sampling, and in no way a definitive list, a few of the area’s well-known scribes both past and present: Charles Sangster; Grant Allen; Annie Rothwell Christie; George Whalley; Wallace Havelock Robb; Robertson Davies; Tom Marshall; Bronwen Wallace; Matt Cohen; David Helwig; Maggie Helwig; Mary Alice Downie; Steven Heighton, Diane Schoemperlen; Mark Sinnett; Richard Cumyn; Merilyn Simonds; Wayne Grady; Carolyn Smart; and Helen Humphreys.
2. Kingston Penitentiary officially opened on June 1st, 1835. The building has a strong architectural presence on the physical landscape of Kingston, but it also has an evocative presence on the literary landscape as well. Starting with Charles Dickens and his visit to the prison in 1842, where he remarked that it was “an admirable jail ... well and wisely governed” and took particular interest in a young woman jailed for her activities during the rebellion, the building and its inhabitants have called out to be written about. Susanna Moodie wrote of it in Life in the Clearings; Margaret Atwood, Merilyn Simonds and Michael Ondaatje have all written novels which reference it; as a journalist, Ernest Hemingway covered the escape of Red Ryan, a notorious bank-robber, for the Toronto Star; and perhaps most interesting, Roger Caron won the 1978 Governor General’s award for non-fiction for his book Go Boy: Memories of a Life Behind Bars, which he wrote while serving time in the facility.
3. Kingston bears an important role in the history of Canadian publishing as the publication site of the first Canadian novel written by a Canadian-born writer. Hugh Thomson, a local Kingston publisher, published St Ursula’s Convent, or The Nun of Canada by Julia Beckwith Hart in 1824. The print run for the book was limited and likely set at around 200 copies. It was sold almost exclusively by subscription, of which there were known to be 165. The book was not reviewed kindly, with the reviewers giving praise to the enterprise of publishing a “Canadian Novel” but not extending that admiration to the resulting text. Today there are only six or seven known copies of the book still in existence, making it one of the rarest Canadian publishing artifacts in existence. Hart’s novel was not Kingston’s only publishing first as the city also happens to be the location of publication for the first Canadian cookbook, The Cook not Mad, in 1831.
4. Kingston has two wonderful literary festivals. Although not old festivals, they have quickly become distinguished, based on the quality and calibre of the writers and guests. The Kingston WritersFest is the new kid on the block with only five years under its belt, but having come through a major retooling in 2009, the festival is bound to have a long and prosperous future. The writers for 2011 have yet to be confirmed, but from what is in the rumour mill, this year looks to rival the Harbourfront Festival in terms of renown of some of the authors. Check out their website for updates. The other literary festival held in Kingston is the Scene of the Crime Festival on Wolfe Island. This festival celebrates mystery writing in Canada. Offering workshops and discussion groups, this festival is not merely for fans but practitioners as well. The one-day event will be held Saturday, August 13, 2011.
5. Lastly, and admittedly, a bit of self-promotion: I would like to highlight the Canadiana collections at Queen’s University Archives. The Canadian literary holdings of Queen’s University Archives began with an initial donation from Lorne Pierce. Pierce was the editor of Ryerson Press, a founding member of both the Canadian Authors Association and the Bibliographical Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Pierce had a penchant for Canadian literature, collecting and Queen’s. These interests conflated and culminated in his donation of the Lorne Pierce papers to the University which contained original archival material from nearly every Canadian literary figure of note from 1920 to 1960. Growing out of that original collection of material, Queen’s University Archives has continued to build strength upon strength to develop one of the most enviable collections of Canadian authors’ papers in Canada. The papers of Al Purdy, George Woodcock, George Whalley, Bliss Carmen, Hugh Garner, Mazo de la Roche, Majorie Pickthall, Dorothy Livesay, Ralph Gustaphson, F.R. Scott and Bronwen Wallace, not to mention Oberon Press, as well as a number of the contemporary authors listed above who make their home in the area can be found at the Archives.
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Would you like to contribute five things about literary life in your community? Send an email with your ideas to erin@openbookontario.com.
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