Canadian Author Challenge — February: Helen Humphreys & Stephen Leacock

February Authors:

Helen Humphreys
Stephen Leacock

Back to general thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/209622

Helen Humphreys (born June 1961 in in Kingston-on-Thames, England) is the author of four books of poetry, six novels, and two works of creative non-fiction. She now lives in Kingston, Ontario. Humphrey's first novel, Leaving Earth, was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998, and a winner of the City of Toronto Book Award.

In describing how she became a writer, Humphreys said, "I started writing when I was young and I just kept going. I read voraciously. I sent my poems (for I was writing exclusively poems then) out to magazines, and eventually I began to get them published. My first book of poetry came out when I was 25."

Her second novel, Afterimage (2000), won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her third novel, The Lost Garden (2002), was a 2003 Canada Reads selection, a national bestseller, and was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Wild Dogs (2004) won the Lambda Prize for fiction, has been optioned for film, and was produced as a stage play at CanStage in Toronto in the fall of 2008. Coventry (2008) was a national bestseller and was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction. It was also a New York Times Editors’ Choice. The Reinvention of Love (2011) was longlisted for the Dublin Impac Literary Award and shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction. Her latest novel, The Evening Chorus was published in February of 2015.

The Globe and Mail had this to say about Ms. Humphrey's most recent novel: "The Evening Chorus, when all is said and done, is a formally conventional but for the most part satisfying yarn; a quiet novel about a calamitous event whose most trenchant passages show the cast of Humphreys’s poet’s eye."

Humphreys' work of creative non-fiction, The Frozen Thames (2007), was a #1 national bestseller. Her collections of poetry include Gods and Other Mortals (1986); Nuns Looking Anxious, Listening to Radios (1990); and, The Perils of Geography (1995). Her most recent collection, Anthem (1999), won the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry. Her most recent work of non-fiction is Nocturne (2013), a memoir about the life and death of her brother, Martin.

In 2009 Helen Humphreys was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize for literary excellence.

Stephen Leacock (December 1869 – March 1944) was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humourist. He is known for his light humour along with criticisms of people's follies. The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour was named in his honour. Like Humphreys, he was also born in England, in Swanmore, in the county of Hampshire in southern England and then came out with his family to Canada when he was six; he was the third of the eleven children. Like Robertson Davies, he attended the Upper Canada College along with his older brothers, where he was top of the class and was chosen as head boy. Soon after his graduation in 1887, his father left the family and never returned. That year, seventeen-year-old Leacock started at University College at the University of Toronto. Leacock found he could not return to his studies the following year because of financial difficulties. He left university to work as a teacher — an occupation he disliked immensely. As a teacher at Upper Canada College, his alma mater, he was able simultaneously to attend classes at the University of Toronto and, in 1891, earn his degree through part-time studies. It was during this period that his first writing was published in The Varsity, a campus newspaper.

Early in his career, Leacock turned to fiction, humour, and short reports to supplement (and ultimately exceed) his regular income. His stories, first published in magazines in Canada and the United States and later in novel form, became extremely popular around the world. It was said in 1911 that more people had heard of Stephen Leacock than had heard of Canada. Also, between the years 1915 and 1925, Leacock was the most popular humorist in the English-speaking world.

He produced 28 works of fiction in his lifetime and 23 works of non-fiction including his autobiography published in 1946, The Boy I Left Behind Me. His bibliography (and more details about his life) can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Leacock#Bibliography

Please tell us what you plan to read and share any thoughts on the authors throughout February or any other time of the year when you have a chance to read works from either author.

I'm enjoying Leacock's Sunshine Sketches, which I got for little o' nothin' for the Kindle back when he was announced as one of the authors for this year. I had never read him before. He's nice and dry with his wit, and I like that.

>5 laytonwoman3rd: Good for you for getting such an early start!



I have The Penguin Book of Stephen Leacock—this 25th anniversary edition includes an introduction by Robertson Davies, so I just had to snag my very own copy. I'll be reading sections from it throughout the month and possibly beyond. Leacock is a new author to me, and I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of him or taken notice until he was brought up as a possibility for the CAC in the planning thread. Once I realised his importance in Canadian literature I knew I had to include him in our first edition of the Canadian Author challenge.



I also plan on savouring Helen Humphreys's The Frozen Thames this month. It's a collection of short stories on the title theme, all put together in a lovely illustrated small book which I'm looking forward to plunging into very soon. I've read and loved her novel Coventry and have several of her other novels on the wishlist as well.

I've read quite a bit by Helen Humphrey including Coventry which is such a fantastic look at the Blitz in London. I am planning to read The Frozen Thames this month. It really looks like a beautiful book.

I'm a nut for The Frozen Thames. Beautiful book. Great gift book, too.

I went on a binge reading her books after The Frozen Thames, with Coventry and The Lost Garden probably being my favorites after TFT. But I haven't read Wild Dogs, so that may be the one I try.

I just requested The Frozen Thames at the library. My library has it shelved in fiction, but I see in the info above it is described as creative non-fiction. I loved Coventry but was less impressed with The Reinvention of Love.

I'm pretty sure Leacock is in public domain - I saw Sunshine Sketches as a free audiobook somewhere. Hoping to try that as well.

I'm jealous of a copy of the Frozen Thames. I felt like putting a note in the library copy: if, horrors, you sell this as unwanted, I want first dibs... Such a lovely delicate book.

I found Humphreys' memoir about her brother and his tragic death at a young age True Story: the life and death of my brother. Given the topic, the tone is as you would expect.

I'm thinking I might return Leacock largely unread. To me this reads like beachcomber style light newspaper columns and I think it's not my bag.

Fascinating to read the bio info above Ilana. Thanks for setting up with such interesting descriptions.

>9 raidergirl3: I think you're right about Leacock being in the public domain; now that I think about it I believe mine was a free download.

I tried Afterimage a few years ago and couldn't get into it at all. I'll see if I can find something else by her to grab me.

I am looking forward to finding something by Leacock - can't believe I've never read him before (well, snippits but not a whole piece of work)

I have The Frozen Thames on hold at the library. I have wanted to read some Helen Humphreys for a while so I'm excited to have company while I do so.

What Ellen said.

I've read the Frozen Thames, which is simply lovely, and I've also read Coventry. I thought it was very good but didn't love it, probably because I'm just so done with books set in WWII. Otherwise, I liked the war setting of Coventry, England, which was a first for me (most WWII books seem to be set in London, Paris, or Germany).

I have a small stack of Humphreys in my TBR pile: The Lost Garden, Wild Dogs, and Afterimage. I've heard great things about all three, so I'm not sure which one I'll pick. (First I have to get through the so-so book for my book club.)

I picked up The Reinvention of Love at The Vancouver Writers Festival after seeing a panel discussion in which Humphreys was one of the authors. I started it but put it aside. This challenge should give me the push to finish it. I enjoyed her Frozen Thames a lot, I am not sure that I will enjoy my planned read as much.

I am struggling with Stephen Leacock as I have been unable to track any down locally. Will order from Book Depo to the UK as one of my wife's friends is coming out - hopefully in time!

I will be reading Coventry for Helen Humphreys

>17 PaulCranswick: Leacock is old. Can you find him online?

>17 PaulCranswick: There is lots of Leacock on Project Gutenberg, Paul.

I'm going for Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town I am a 63 year old Canadian and have never read Stephen Leacock! For that matter, I have never read Davies, Thuy or Humphries!! What a bad Canadian I am!

I am planning on reading The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys this month. I read Coventry last year and loved it so immediately ordered another one of her books. The Lost Garden is also set during WW II and is about Landgirls.

I got a 0,99 EUR Kindle edition of 12 books by Stephen Leacock plus Sunshine Sketches as a bonus book. Looking through the vast table of contents I'm confused and don't know where to start, so maybe best with those sketches?

I finished the book I chose for February CAC author Helen Humphreys True Story: the life and death of my brother. (I am not sure, but from some of the stuff online think it might have been previously published as Nocturne).

Humphreys writes short reflections on her brother's diagnosis with pancreatic cancer, his final months and death. She also reflects on his career as a pianist, how he dealt with being absorbed by art, and her own experiences of withdrawing from the world to be able to write.

"The space that I write these words down in is the space after the music has left"

Given the topic it's clearly not surprising that it is such a sad book. Despite describing how his death stopped her work, she is able to draw together the strands of loss, of sibling relationships, and the possibility of hope after mourning in such a way that added up for me to be a meaningful read.

>22 Deern: I'm enjoying Sunshine Sketches very much. I had never read Leacock before, so apparently it is a good place to start.

Unfortunately our library seems to have nothing by Humphreys.

I'm so glad to see all the participation so far this month! I started on The Frozen Thames this week, of which I read several stories and was enchanted from the first. Will be picking up Leacock soon. Sunshine Sketches is on CBC's list of "100 novels that make you proud to be a Canadian" (http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/100+novels+that+make+you+proud+to+be+a+Canadian), so probably a good place to start.

'Enchanted' was the word I thought of as well after reading just the first few stories of The Frozen Thames. And such a beautiful book too.

Just finished The Frozen Thames. I wish I had read it in smaller pieces so more of them stood out to me. Here's what I wrote:

The shortness of the stories, and the number of them, makes it hard for me to remember them, but there were some interesting, tragic, and beautiful remembrances. I think experiencing the many emotions from the same event was moving to me, along with the way the Thames took over the city, simply by freezing.

An excerpt from one of my favorites (1684):
"No, what is remarkable about the Frost Fair is that is does not operate by the same rules that govern life on land. It is a phenomenon and is therefore free of the laws and practices of history. The poor and the rich alike inhabit the same space, participate in the same sports and diversion, are, for a very brief moment in time, equal citizens of a new and magical world."

>27 jennyifer24:, wonderful excerpt choice! I have just started the book too as an e-book but maybe want to get my hands on the real thing.

>21 DeltaQueen50: I didn't know that Humphreys had written a book about landgirls, Judy. I am interested in reading about landgirls because my mother was one. I look forward to hearing what you think about The Lost Garden.

>27 jennyifer24: Loved this quote. What a beautiful book.

>29 Familyhistorian: Would recommend The Lost Garden - focus is on the manager of a group of Land Girls, so a different perspective to Angela Huth's book. If you like books about gardens and nature this may well be a winner. Humphreys is so good at describing the beauty of gardens.

>28 mdoris: This is one book that you'll probably want to be sure to get in real thing form, rather than e-book. It's a gem you'll want to hold.

>30 charl08: Agree re The Lost Garden. I really liked that one. I'd put The Frozen Thames first, then Coventry, then The Lost Garden.

>31 jnwelch: Thanks for the tip. I'll pick it up at the library! True to heart I'm a book holding kind of girl.

>32 mdoris: :-)

I am looking forward to reading my copy of Afterimage, as that is the only Humphreys I own that I haven't read yet.

ETA: touchstones not working this morning for me

I'm going to start Afterimage later today. Looking forward to it.

>34 lkernagh: It wasn't just you....there has been a site-wide problem with the touchstones.

I finished Leacock's Sunshine Sketches yesterday. It was pure unadulterated satirical fun. The title tells you what to expect. The collection of vignettes is full of small town characters that could be found anywhere in America, and apparently in Canada, at any time from the late 19th century right up to the present time. You might have to look harder for them these days, but I know they are still out there, seeing the world from their front porches and bar stools rather than through the lenses of the Big Guys in the City. Every ordinary little episode is laced with cleverness and affectionate humor. You might think of Mark Twain, or Garrison Keillor, while reading this. It made me very glad to have signed on to the Canadian Authors Challenge this year. Since they were free, I also downloaded Literary Lapses, and have been dipping in and out of it, but it isn't captivating me quite as much as the Sketches.

>36 laytonwoman3rd: Great review! I only read two chapters so far (almost no reading time this month), but I'm really loving it. And I found the expression in your post that makes the difference to normal satire/ fun: "affectionate". Clever yes, but he likes his characters so much and the reader can't help liking them as well. Also quite timeless, in chapter 2 I was reminded of the new markets bubble when even my parents and their neighbors started subscribing for new technology shares (and luckily didn't get any).

I have finished The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys. What a beautiful book. I found it spoke to me on so many different levels and it well deserved my 5 star rating.

Finished The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys this evening. Another five-star read; a glittering jewel I already look forward to cradling in my hands again. ★★★★★

>27 jennyifer24: I read about four pieces a day and was hoping they would sink in deeper that way, in small morsels, but my memory being the defective instrument it is, no such luck. However, lots of impressions remain, like footsteps in the crunchy snow of a truly frigid day (as it is here in Montreal: around -32C or -25F tonight when I went to walk my little dog Coco, who can't seem to get enough of the cold and snow!).



>36 laytonwoman3rd: Loved your comments Linda. I'm now hoping some excerpts from Sunshine Sketches are included in my Penguin anthology.

>38 DeltaQueen50: Thanks so much for your feedback Judy. The Lost Garden has been on my wishlist for quite some time; I'll try to make room for it sooner than later.

I am very nervous to put forwards this opinion as clearly I am really in the minority on this and everyone else absolutely loves Helen Humphreys, but I have just finished The Frozen Thames and ... I didn't ... really ... like it that much. It was OK, but I can't quite see what other people see in it. Sorry.

>40 SandDune: - You are not alone. I have tried one Humphreys book (Afterimage) and never finished it. I think I also started but abandoned another, whose title escapes me at the moment, as well. I don't think I am going to read either of the designated authors, this month but will definitely read Farley Mowat for next month as I own a few of his already

I read and loved The Frozen Thames yesterday. I gave it 4.5 stars but, honestly, I'm not sure why I didn't give her the full five. It's an exquisite collection of tiny stories. Definitely a book to have in hard copy and perhaps to treasure.

I just finished an incredible story of survival from a new Canadian author, Jenn Sadai. I highly recommend Dark Confessions of an Extraordinary, Ordinary Woman. You'll need Kleenex through most of it, but the ending is really inspiring.

>40 SandDune: I am very nervous to put forwards this opinion as clearly I am really in the minority on this and everyone else absolutely loves Helen Humphreys, but I have just finished The Frozen Thames and ... I didn't ... really ... like it that much. It was OK, but I can't quite see what other people see in it. Sorry.

No apologies required whatsoever. Nothing would be more dull than everyone liking and disliking the same things. What I really liked about that one wasn't the writing -- it was the presentation, the concept, and the unique ideas behind it. Some of the stories were too short to amount to much, and I can see that falling flat for some readers. But for me, it was the whole package.

I just finished Afterimage, which in the end I liked rather well. There were some fascinating parts and some very boring bits too. The atmosphere was fabulous, and there was some gorgeous writing, but not much plot. I was tempted to abandon it a few times, but glad I saw it through.

>44 Nickelini: Agreed re The Frozen Thames. I loved it, but we're not all the same, and as you say, nothing could be more dull than if we were.

“We walk the streets of London. It is seven years ago. We didn't meet, but we are together. This is real. This is a book, dusty from the top shelf of a library in Mayfair. The drowned sound of life under all that ink, restless waves breaking on this reading shore. Where I wait for you. I do.”

“My clothes are few. But my books, my books are so many it looks as though I am on my way to open a small lending library.”

-The Lost Garden I am loving this book...

I just finished The Frozen Thames. I liked some of the stories and the illustrations were great, but I was not captivated by this book. Maybe reading the stories one after another is not how it should be read, but rather sampled once and awhile - not so easy with a library book.

But I really liked The Lost Garden which I had read in the past.

“The best gardens are a perfect balance of order and chaos. The tension created by this constantly threatened balance is the pulse of the garden itself.”

“Can words go straight to the heart? Is this possible? Can words be as direct as the scent of roses?”

“For maybe this is how poetry can be of use. Though it can't move with us, we can move it between us, pass it among us, so it is held up by our voices, so it moves with our very breath, our living breath.”

-The Lost Garden Only 40 pages left. Do not want this one to end...

>48 msf59: Love the espaliered trees. Great photo.

Helen Humphrey's The Reinvention of Love had been sitting on my shelf for a few years so it was a given that I would read it for this challenge. The author has reimagined the world of literary Paris in the mid 1800s to tell the story of the love affair of Charles Saint-Beuve and Adele Hugo. It was scandulous but the revenge that Victor Hugo visited upon his adultrous wife and former friend blighted not only their lives but, ultimately, the lives of his whole immediate family. It was an interesting but sad read.

>48 msf59: I have heard good things about The Lost Garden. I will have to find a copy.

>50 Familyhistorian: That one sounds interesting. I think it might be fun to read that one at about the same time The Count of Monte Cristo is read (or re-read, in the case of many of us, myself included). Sounds like revenge is in both!

>51 thornton37814: The book does talk about Victor Hugo writing The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lori. I don't know his works well so don't know if any of them deal with revenge. Dumas was Hugo's contemporary so the The Count of Monte Cristo was set in the same area around the same time frame.

>52 Familyhistorian: There's definitely revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo which I've read about 3 times.

I'm struggling a bit with Sunshine Sketches. I think I was expecting humor. This is more sweetly affectionate than funny. Entertaining though.

I chose Helen Humphreys, since I had several of her books on my wishlist. Ended up reading two:

Coventry. November 14, 1940 – The bombing of Coventry. Ms. Humphreys tells the story through three main characters – a WWI widow, a young man who was posted on the cathedral rooftop as a firespotter, and his mother. It was a heart-wrenching story, what that city suffered that night. The author was very descriptive of the destruction, without being overly gruesome.

The Lost Garden. Gwen Davis is a plain child born to a narcissistic woman.

”My mother locked me outdoors and her love denied became my profession. The garden became my home. . . . Every day weather blows in and out, alters the surface. Sometimes it is stripped down to a single essential truth, the thing that is always believed, no matter what. The seeds from which the garden has grown.
My mother was beautiful.
I ruined her life.” p.120

Gwen goes on to work for the Royal Horticultural Society, then is sent to oversee a group of young women in the Women’s Land Army at an estate in the country for the purpose of producing potatoes for the war effort. There she finds the forgotten garden and tries to piece together its meaning.

A little late, but just finished Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock (100th Anniversary Edition with wonderful wood-engraved illustrations by Wesley W. Bates).

I enjoyed this book a lot--a humorous, affectionate look at small-town life in 1912 rural Ottawa. As others have mentioned, it's sort of a News from Lake Wobegon, 19th century Canadian style. Human nature hasn't changed much in 100 years, and Leacock has captured it in a light-hearted way. I'm sure there were many "inside" jokes that I didn't get, but there were plenty of jokes I did get, which made it worthwhile, and lots of moments that just made me smile. The election chapter was especially appropriate. A nice break from more serious books.

I'm really enjoying the CAC--so many good authors that are new to me.

>57 kac522: Glad you enjoyed Sunshine Sketches, and thanks for sharing your experience here. I'm reading a collection of his works as chosen by Robertson Davies and so far have read a dozen or more pieces by Leacock, half of which were a selection of the Sunshine Sketches, and while I enjoyed those well enough, I'm finding some of his other writings more enjoyable somehow. Or maybe I should say I find them funnier. The sketches were rather more quaint than funny to me, and as you say, no doubt there were lots of inside jokes in there contemporary readers would have been amused by which aren't detected by the modern reader.

Glad you're enjoying the CAC. I'm sure many of us (not least of all myself, as the organiser) will discover lots of wonderful 'new' authors this year.

Oops... looks like I forgot to post here. I finished reading Afterimage, which is my sixth Humphreys read to date, and more of a 'middle of the road' read for me. Overall, a beautifully written story that receives high marks from me for its prosaic beauty and its capture of the Victorian England class system, but low marks for the characterization of Isabelle and Annie that left me rather frustrated as a reader.