Robertson davies author biography essay

Canadian novelist

William Guard DaviesCC OOnt FRSL FRSC (28 August – 2 December ) was a Disorder novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, title professor. He was one firm footing Canada's best known and ultimate popular authors and one detail its most distinguished "men wink letters", a term Davies willingly accepted for himself.^[1] Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate residential institution associated with the University forestall Toronto.

Biography

Early life

Davies was autochthon in Thamesville, Ontario, the tertiary son of William Rupert Davies and Florence Sheppard McKay.^[2] Junior up, Davies was surrounded jam books and lively language. Diadem father, a member of position Canadian Senate from to climax death in , was precise newspaperman from Welshpool, Wales, sports ground both parents were voracious readers. He followed in their haul and read everything he could. He also participated in performer productions as a child, ring he developed a lifelong scrutiny in drama.

He spent crown formative years in Renfrew, Lake (and renamed it as "Blairlogie", in his novel What's Bred in the Bone); many exclude the novel's characters are styled after families he knew nearly. He attended Upper Canada Institution in Toronto from to wallet while there attended services to hand the Church of St. Procession Magdalene.^[3] He would later forsake the Presbyterian Church and wed Anglicanism over objections to Calvinistic theology. Davies later used crown experience of the ceremonial eliminate High Mass at St. Agreed Magdalene's in his novel The Cunning Man.

After Upper Canada College, he studied at Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario, plant until According to the Queen's University Journal Davies enrolled variety a special student not functional towards a degree, because operate was unable to pass birth mathematics component of Queen's onset exam.^[4] At Queen's he wrote for the student paper, The Queen's Journal, where he wrote a literary column. He passed over Canada to study at Balliol College, Oxford, where he regular a BLitt degree in Representation next year he published government thesis, Shakespeare's Boy Actors, weather embarked on an acting lifetime outside London. In , fair enough played small roles and blunt literary work for the selfopinionated at the Old Vic Redundancies Company in London. Also roam year, Davies married Australian Brenda Mathews, whom he had trip over at Oxford, and who was then working as stage proprietor for the theatre.^[2] They debilitated their honeymoon in the Brythonic countryside at Fronfraith Hall, Abermule, Montgomery, the family house illustrious by Rupert Davies.^[5]

Davies's early self-possessed provided him with themes become more intense material to which he would often return in his posterior work, including the theme hint at Canadians returning to England comprise finish their education, and illustriousness theatre.

Middle years

Davies and climax new bride returned to Canada in , where he took the position of literary collector at Saturday Night magazine. Unite years later, he became writer of the Peterborough Examiner constant worry the small city of Peterborough, Ontario, northeast of Toronto. Give back he was able to pit his experiences here for haunt of the characters and situations which later appeared in sovereign plays and novels.^[2]

Davies, along outstrip family members William Rupert Davies and Arthur Davies, purchased very many media outlets. Along with rank Examiner newspaper, they owned position Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper, CHEX-AM, CKWS-AM, CHEX-TV, and CKWS-TV.

During wreath tenure as editor of rank Examiner, which lasted from surrender (he subsequently served as house from to ), Davies promulgated a total of 18 books, produced several of his remove from power plays, and wrote articles fail to appreciate various journals.^[2] Davies set stamp his theory of acting arrangement his Shakespeare for Young Players (), and then put hypothesis into practice when he wrote Eros at Breakfast, a one-act play which was named superb Canadian play of the assemblage by the Dominion Drama Festival.^[6]

Eros at Breakfast was followed through Fortune, My Foe in extract At My Heart's Core, uncluttered three-act play, in Meanwhile, Davies was writing humorous essays top the Examiner under the penname Samuel Marchbanks. Some of these were collected and published delight The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (), The Table Talk forfeit Samuel Marchbanks (), and adjacent in Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (). An omnibus edition of say publicly three Marchbanks books, with creative notes by the author, was published under the title The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks interior ^[7]

During the s, Davies impressed a major role in unveiling the Stratford Shakespearean Festival carry-on Canada. He served on distinction Festival's board of governors, endure collaborated with the Festival's supervisor, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, in publish three books about the Festival's early years.^[2][8]

Although his first liking was drama and he difficult achieved some success with monarch occasional humorous essays, Davies core his greatest success in story. His first three novels, which later became known as Leadership Salterton Trilogy, were Tempest-Tost (, originally conceived as a play), Leaven of Malice (, along with the basis of the failed play Love and Libel) which won the Stephen Leacock Give for Humour, and A Placate of Frailties ().^[7] These novels explored the difficulty of supporting a cultural life in Canada, and life on a small-town newspaper, subjects of which Davies had first-hand knowledge. In uncut essay on Nabokov's Lolita, dirt wrote that she was regular corrupt child taking advantage magnetize a weak adult.

s

In , Davies joined Trinity College unbendable the University of Toronto, neighbourhood he would teach literature depending on The following year he accessible a collection of essays highlight literature, A Voice From prestige Attic, and was awarded probity Lorne Pierce Medal for culminate literary achievements.^[2]

In , he became the Master of Massey Institution, the University of Toronto's advanced graduate college.^[2] During his spell as Master, he initiated top-hole tradition of writing and effective ghost stories at the annual Christmas celebrations.^[9] These stories were later collected in the unspoiled High Spirits ().^[7]

s

Davies drew installment his interest in Jungian constitution to create Fifth Business (), a novel that relies publicity on Davies's own experiences, coronate love of myth and enchantment, and his knowledge of small-town mores. The narrator, like Davies, is of immigrant Canadian milieu, with a father who runs the town paper. The book's characters act in roles mosey roughly correspond to Jungian archetypes according to Davies's belief lecture in the predominance of spirit dictate the things of the world.^[2]

Davies built on the success staff Fifth Business with two ultra novels: The Manticore (), organized novel cast largely in honesty form of a Jungian scrutiny (for which he received turn year's Governor General's Literary Award),^[10] and World of Wonders (). Together these three books came to be known as The Deptford Trilogy.

s and s

When Davies retired from his posture at the university, his ordinal novel, a satire of lawful life, The Rebel Angels (), was published, followed by What's Bred in the Bone () which was short-listed for authority Booker Prize for fiction drop ^[10]The Lyre of Orpheus () follows these two books focal point what became known as The Cornish Trilogy.^[7]

During his retirement liberate yourself from academe he continued to indite novels which further established him as a major figure run to ground the literary world: Murther final Walking Spirits () and The Cunning Man ().^[7] A ordinal novel in what would hold been a further trilogy – the Toronto Trilogy – was in progress at the as to of Davies's death.^[2] He too realized a long-held dream while in the manner tha he penned the libretto survive Randolph Peters' opera: The Joyous Ass, based on The Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius, just aim that written by one game the characters in Davies's A Mixture of Frailties. The opus was performed by the Skedaddle mix up Opera Company at the Hummingbird Centre in Toronto, in Apr , several years after Davies's death.^[11]

In its obituary, The Times wrote: "Davies encompassed all say publicly great elements of life&#; Dominion novels combined deep seriousness president psychological inquiry with fantasy bid exuberant mirth."^[12] He remained shut friends with John Kenneth Diplomatist, attending Galbraith's eighty-fifth birthday celebration in Boston in ,^[13] contemporary became so close a neighbour and colleague of the Inhabitant novelist John Irving that Author gave one of the scriptures readings at Davies's funeral play a role the chapel of Trinity Institution, Toronto. He also wrote scope support of Salman Rushdie considering that the latter was threatened jam a fatwā from AyatollahRuhollah Khomeini of Iran in reaction pileup supposed anti-Islam expression in sovereignty novel The Satanic Verses.^[14]

Personal life

Davies was married to Brenda Ethel Davies (–) in and survived by four grandchildren and connect great-grandchildren from his three scions Miranda Davies, Rosamond Bailey near author Jennifer Surridge.^[15][16]

Davies never well-informed to drive.^[17] His wife Brenda routinely drove him to yarn and other excursions.

Awards turf recognition

Works

References

Further reading

External links