Graeme Gibson

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Graeme Gibson , actually Thomas Graeme Cameron Gibson ( August 9, 1934 in London , Ontario - September 18, 2019 in London , England ) was a Canadian ornithologist , writer and conservationist .

He was married to the writer Margaret Atwood for more than 45 years .

life and work

Graeme Gibson graduated from the University of Western Ontario . From 1961 to 1969 he taught at the Ryerson Institute of Technology, now Ryerson University .

In 1969, Five Legs , his first novel, was published by Anansi . It was considered the breakthrough of the Canadian experimental novel. A thousand units were sold in the first week. For Scott Symons, "Page after page was written more effectively than any other recent Canadian novel I can think of." He also placed the book above all the new US releases of the time - including Pynchon and Fariña . He became widely known in 1973 with the interview volume Eleven Canadian Novelists , in which he had conversations about literature and writing with Margaret Atwood , Austin Clarke , Matt Cohen , Marian Engel , Timothy Findley , Dave Godfrey , Margaret Laurence , Jack Ludwig , Alice Munro , Mordecai Richler and Scott Symons . He was also involved in professional politics, was chairman of the Writer's Union of Canada from 1974 to 1975 and founded the Writers' Trust of Canada , a non-profit literary society for the advancement of Canadian writers.

He was married to the writer Shirley Gibson (1927–1997) for a few years. The couple had two sons and separated in the early 1970s. In 1973 he met the writer Margaret Atwood . The two became a couple and moved to a farm near Alliston in the province of Ontario . In 1976 their daughter Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson was born there. Four years later the family moved to Toronto . He was Writer in Residence at the University of Waterloo and the University of Ottawa (1985). From 1987 to 1989 he served as President of the Canadian PEN

In 1996 he gave up writing fictional works. At the time he was working on a novel with the working title Moral Disorder . His wife took on this title in 2006 for a collection of short stories. He was a board member of the Canadian section of the World Wildlife Fund and chairman of the bird observatory on Pelee Island . The Bedside Book of Birds (2005) combined Gibson's two great passions, ornithology and writing.

On April 17, 2017, The New Yorker announced that Gibson had been diagnosed with early signs of dementia . However, he continued to accompany his wife on her reading tours, most recently to London for her new book The Testaments in September 2019 , where he suddenly died on the 18th of the month. Atwood announced the loss in deep sadness, but also emphasized that this had prevented the further descent into dementia that he feared.

Publications

  • Five Legs - 1969
  • Communion - 1971
  • Eleven Canadian Novelists - 1973
  • Perpetual Motion - 1982
  • Gentleman Death - 1993
  • The Bedside Book of Birds - 2005
  • The Bedside Book of Beasts - 2009

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Graeme Gibson ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  2. ↑ goodreads: Five Legs by Graeme Gibson, Sean Kane , accessed December 29, 2019
  3. ↑ The Independent: Graeme Gibson: Canadian novelist and conservationist who spoke up for literary rights , accessed December 29, 2019
  4. ^ Robert Potts: Light in the wilderness (en-GB) . In: The Guardian , April 26, 2003. 
  5. ^ The elusive Margaret Atwood | Quill and Quire . In: Quill and Quire , April 28, 2004. 
  6. ^ John Sutherland: Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives . Yale University Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-300-18243-9 , p. 721.
  7. ↑ See Margaret Atwood: Moral Disorder , McClelland and Stewart, 2006, mentioned at the end of the book.
  8. ^ Margaret Atwood, the Prophet of Dystopia . The New Yorker . 18th September 2019.
  9. ↑ Canadian author Graeme Gibson dies aged 85 . The Guardian . 18th September 2019.
  10. ^ Doubleday today shares the sad news that celebrated Canadian author Graeme Gibson has died . Penguin Random House. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
  11. ^ Canadian author Graeme Gibson dead at 85 . CP24 . 18th September 2019.
  12. ↑ Gold Medal 2015 Recipients - Dr. Jacob Verhoef, Graeme Gibson and Margaret Atwood . Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Retrieved September 22, 2019.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gibson, Graeme
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gibson, Thomas Graeme Cameron (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian writer and environmentalist
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH London (Ontario) , Canada
DATE OF DEATH 18th September 2019
Place of death London , England