Working the Dead Beat (51 page)

.
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The Gay Talese Reader.
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.
A Writer's Life.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

Taylor, Charles.
Six Journeys: A Canadian Pattern.
Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 1977.

Tippett, Maria, with photographs by Charles Gimpel.
Between Two Cultures: A Photographer among the Inuit.
Toronto: Viking, 1994.

Tracey, Lindalee.
Growing Up Naked: My Years in Bump and Grind.
Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1997.

.
On the Edge: A Journey into the Heart of Canada.
Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1993.

Trudeau, Margaret.
Beyond Reason.
New York: Paddington Press, 1979.

Vance, Jonathan.
Unlikely Soldiers: How Two Canadians Fought the Secret War against Nazi Occupation.
Toronto: HarperCollins, 2008.

Van Hasselt, Caroline.
High Wire Act: Ted Rogers and the Empire That Debt Built.
Mississauga, ON: J. Wiley, 2007.

Vorano, Norman.
Japanese Inspiration: Early Printmaking in the Canadian Arctic.
Gatineau, QC: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2011.

Vrba, Rudolf, and Alan Bestic.
Escape from Auschwitz: I Cannot Forgive.
London/New York: Grove Press, 1986.

Vulliamy, C. E.
Immortality: Funerary Rites and Customs.
London: Senate, 1999.

Weston, Greg.
The Stopwatch Gang.
Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1992.

Whitman, Alden.
The Obituary Book.
New York: Stein & Day, 1971.

Williams, Andrea D., ed.
The Essential Galbraith.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

Williamson, Ronald F., and Michael S. Bisson, eds.
The Archaeology of Bruce Trigger: Theoretical Empiricism.
Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006.

Newspapers

Daily Telegraph
(London)

Globe and Mail
(Toronto)

Guardian
(London)

Independent
(London)

Montreal Gazette

National Post
(Toronto)

New York Times

Toronto Star

Sunday Times
(London)

Times
(London)

Vancouver Sun

Washington Post

Winnipeg Free Press

Periodicals

Antigonish Review

Books in Canada

Chatelaine

Downbeat

Gentleman's Magazine

Grand Street

International Journal of Cultural Studies

London Library Magazine

Maclean's

Nieman Reports

Opera Canada

The Post-Angel

Quill & Quire

Saturday Night

Toronto Life

Walrus

Vanity Fair

 

Acknowledgements

M
Y FIRST THANKS
must go to the more than fifty people I have written about in this book. Their lives and their times inspired, fascinated, and even disturbed me at times. In writing about them I learned a great deal about humanity, the past, writing short biographies, and the history of Canada and its place in the larger world. I'm extremely grateful to the hundreds of people who agreed to speak with me in person, by e-mail, and on the telephone during the course of my research both as a journalist at the
Globe
and for this book. And to those who had a fright, thinking they were in my sights when I sent an e-mail, asking, “Can we talk?” I apologize. I quickly learned to add the words “not about you” in the subject line.

I am grateful to the
Globe and Mail
for giving me the opportunity to write obituaries, for supporting me in my writing and reporting, and for listening attentively to my frequent suggestions for improving the way we cover obits. I would particularly like to thank Publisher Phillip Crawley and the editors, both past and current, with whom I have worked on the dead beat, especially John Stackhouse, David Walmsley, Sylvia Stead, Patrick Martin, Colin Mackenzie, Colin Haskin, and Susan Smith. A special thanks to librarians Celia Donnelly, Rick Cash and Stephanie Chambers — an obituary writer's best friends. I have also used the research libraries at the Universities of Toronto, Western Ontario, and Victoria, among other repositories, and have come to treasure their open stacks and generous lending policies.

The University of Victoria honoured me as the Harvey Stevenson Southam Lecturer in Journalism and Nonfiction in 2010, which gave me the splendid opportunity to spend four months in the Writing Department, teaching a course about obituaries as a biographical form to third- and fourth-year students. I'm sure I learned as much from the students as I taught them, especially when it came to developing multi-media obituary websites. The Ontario Arts Council gave me a Writers' Reserve Grant in 2011, which helped immeasurably in giving me time to work on the book in the early stages.

The House of Anansi Press, with its stellar reputation as a Canadian publisher, was a lucky and a welcome home for this project. I'm particularly grateful to Scott Griffin, a generous and careful reader; Sarah MacLachlan, a nimble and resourceful publisher; and Janie Yoon, an editor who climbs down into the writing trenches without losing sight of the goal and the schedule. My thanks also go to my publicist, Laura Repas; the sales team, Barbara Howson, Emily Mockler, and Eva O'Brien; and the marketing duo, Fred Horler and Trish Osuch. I would also like to thank designers Brian Morgan and Alysia Shewchuk for their beautiful work on this book, as well as copyeditor Gillian Watts and proofreader Peter Norman for their careful reading of the manuscript.

Many people gave me valuable advice and support. They include Mary Janigan and Tom Kierans, Margaret Atwood, Charlotte Gray, Jeanne Cannizzo and David Stafford, Robert Jan van Pelt, Michael Marrus, Marci McDonald, Michael Bliss, Michiel Horn, the walking women and my obituary writing colleagues around the world. Several generous souls read parts of this book and took me seriously when I asked them to pick nits and identify howlers. They include in alphabetical order, Katherine Ashenburg, Don Avery, Geoff Beattie, Carol Bishop-Gwyn, Jack Chambers, Pat Feheley, Ron Graham, Jack Granatstein, Blake Heathcote, Bill Kaplan, Kirk Makin, Joe Martin, Sarah Murdoch, and David Stimpson. My husband, Roger Hall, has been my first and last reader for more years than either of us probably cares to remember, but he remains my best and most faithful sounding board. He and my children, Jeffrey and Louisa, have lived this book with me, and I thank them with love and gratitude.

Finally, thank you to McClelland & Stewart for use of the following excerpts:

Excerpted from “Keine Lazarovitch: 1870 – 1959” from
A Wild Peculiar Joy
by Irving Layton. Copyright © 1982, 2004 by Irving Layton. Copyright © 2007 by Estate of Irving Layton. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart.

Excerpted from “Irving and Me at the Hospital” from
Book of Longing
by
Leonard Cohen. Copyright © 2006 Leonard Cohen. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart.

Excerpted from “Last Dance at the Four Penny” from
The Spice-Box of Earth
by
Leonard Cohen. Copyright © 1961 Leonard Cohen. Reprinted by permission of McClelland & Stewart.

 

About the Author

Author photo: Nigel Dickson

 

S
ANDRA MARTIN IS
a journalist at the
Globe and Mail
. She has won writing prizes from the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, gold and silver National Magazine Awards, the Atkinson and William Southam Journalism Fellowships, and the Harvey Southam Lecturership at the University of Victoria. The co-author of three books, including
Rupert Brooke in Canada
and
Card Tricks: Bankers, Boomers, and the Explosion of Plastic Credit
, which was shortlisted for the Canadian Business Book Award, she is the editor of the bestselling and critically acclaimed collection
The First Man in My Life: Daughters Write about Their Fathers
. She lives in Toronto with her husband, historian Roger Hall, and is the mother of two children.

About the Publisher

House of Anansi Press was founded in 1967 with a mandate to publish Canadian-authored books, a mandate that continues to this day even as the list has branched out to include internationally acclaimed thinkers and writers. The press immediately gained attention for significant titles by notable writers such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, George Grant, and Northrop Frye. Since then, Anansi's commitment to finding, publishing and promoting challenging, excellent writing has won it tremendous acclaim and solid staying power. Today Anansi is Canada's pre-eminent independent press, and home to nationally and internationally bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Gil Adamson, Margaret Atwood, Ken Babstock, Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Misha Glenny, Jim Harrison, A. L. Kennedy, Pasha Malla, Lisa Moore, A. F. Moritz, Eric Siblin, Karen Solie, and Ronald Wright. Anansi is also proud to publish the award-winning nonfiction series The CBC Massey Lectures. In 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Anansi was honoured by the Canadian Booksellers Association as “Publisher of the Year.”