Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! How could we have almost overlooked that today is the centenary of Robertson Davies, an author who has given us so much wisdom and laughter?
Whew! Fortunately we’re just in time for the day. Happy birthday, Robertson! And we’ve baked you a little cake to celebrate!
How could we forget the man who said:
“A happy childhood has spoiled many a promising life.”
“I do not ‘get’ ideas; ideas get me.”
“The dog is a yes-animal. Very popular with people who can’t afford a yes man.”
“Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.”
“Do not suppose, however, that I intend to urge a diet of classics on anybody. I have seen such diets at work. I have known people who have actually read all, or almost all, the guaranteed Hundred Best Books. God save us from reading nothing but the best.”
“Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.”
“Inactivity and deprivation of all accustomed stimulus is not rest; it is a preparation for the tomb”
“Fanaticism is overcompensation for doubt.”
Fortunately, fortunately, the Canadian post is on top of things, which makes a nice change. They’re issuing a commemorative stamp. (Canadian readers, can you send me one?)
Here’s how Canada’s National Post summarized his career:
Born in 1913 in Thamesville, Ontario, Davies had a long and distinguished literary career, not only as a novelist, but also as a playwright, journalist, and critic.
Davies’ career spanned six decades and numerous genres. In 1940, he became the literary editor of Saturday Night magazine. He was also a longtime editor for the Peterborough Examiner.
A lover of theatre, Davies wrote more than dozen plays during his lengthy career, and would help launch Canada’s Stratford Festival in 1953, where he served on its board of governors.
Davies was also the founding master of the University of Toronto’s Massey College, in 1963, where students jumped at the chance to hear him tell ghost stories each Christmas.
The author’s greatest success came from the 11 novels he published during his lifetime. The most famous of those, The Fifth Business (1970), was on the Toronto Star bestseller list for 42 weeks, and would form one part of The Deptford Trilogy.
Davies won many awards, including a Booker Prize, a Governor General’s Literary Award (for The Manticore), and the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour (for Leaven of Malice).
Towards the end of his life, Davies himself responded to such introductions this way: “The introducer has approached me by what may be called the biographical path. He begins by telling that I was born, and when, and where. As soon as he mentions the date of my birth I can see the audience doing a little sum in their heads, after which they look at me with renewed interest to see how I am carrying the burden of my years. He is all kindness; he romps through the public details of my life, but under the circumstances I cannot laugh or weep.”
That’s from the 1989 Paris Review interview with Elisabeth Sifton. I was happy to read that Davies confirms my own prejudice about writing by hand. No surprise, perhaps. Like me, he began in the daily wipes:
INTERVIEWER:
Now, the requisite Paris Review question: How do you write your novels? In your instance, this is a more interesting question than usual because you have an extraordinarily beautiful italic hand. Do you write the first draft of your novel longhand or do you type?
DAVIES:
I type because writing by hand I find to be a very great betrayer. If you write carefully and try to write legibly, as I do, you finish a page and think, That’s a handsome page. This is absolutely wrong. Also, you can only write so long with a pen before your hand becomes tired, and then your invention begins to tire. If you type, which I do because I had my earliest training as a newspaperman and learned to use the typewriter readily, you have what you’ve written there before you cold and bare. Then you can go over it, and it is as though someone else had written it and you can edit it with great severity. I am a terrible fidget about form, and the first typed draft is often pitifully ragged and messy. But then after it goes to my secretary, who makes a clean copy, I revise extensively. The heavy work is done, but I like revising. As for editing, though I try to be stringent, you will recall that I resist your editorlike zeal for total clarity—all the lights blazing and not a dark corner to be found. I am a writer much given to light and shade, and I firmly believe that to know all is to despise all.
Read the rest here, and pop open a bottle of champers for “The Man.”
Tags: Elisabeth Sifton, Robertson Davies