The Dalhousie University Archives has several draft copies of Rockbound, entitled at various times, "Devil in the Sea," "His World: The Islanders," "The Islanders," and "Ironbound." As most of the manuscripts are undated, the order in which they were written is uncertain. Each of the different manuscripts contains major revisions and the draft entitled "His World: The Islanders" has editorial revision notes throughout. Images of pages from these manuscripts can be viewed in the Image Galleries.
The Making of a Novel
In 1920, Frank Parker Day began working on the book that would become known as Rockbound. In 1926, while visiting East Ironbound, Pearl Island and Tancooks for the summer, Day made notes on the culture and language of the people and even incorporated the sinking of the Sylvia Westner into his novel. In 1927, Day submitted his Rockbound manuscript to Doubleday and the work is published a year later in 1928. The novel received only minor media attention when it was first published. However, citizens of the small fishing village of Ironbound, which was the basis of the novel, were outraged at being portrayed as ignorant backward islanders. On May 18, 1929 Day offered a public apology to the residents of Ironbound. The 1929 stock market crash severely affected the publishing industry and Rockbound fell out of print for the next forty years.
The book was resurrected in 1974 for the Literature of Canada Prose and Poetry in Reprint series. The University of Toronto Press re-published the book with an introduction by Allan Bevan of the Dalhousie University English Department. There was an attempt by Susan Shillingford, founder of the Chester Theatre Society to adapt the novel to the stage; however her idea was vetoed by community members of the theatre. In 1989, Rockbound received some much needed publicity when Gerald Hallowell, an editor with the University of Toronto Press, supported a new printing of the novel. This version contained an afterword by Gwendolyn Davies, Dean of Graduate Studies and Associate Vice-President (Research) at the University of New Brunswick. The book received even more attention when, in 1998, for the second time Shillingford attempted to adapt the book into a theatre production. This time she was successful, having received support from her newly formed Whistling Fish Productions and grants from the Canada Council and the Helen Creighton Society. The first theatrical production was performed in Nelson B.C. In 2004, Rockbound was nominated by Donna Morrissey, author of Kit's Law and Downhill Chance for the CBC Canada Reads contest. In February 2005, Rockbound survived the Canada Reads debates and was awarded the overall winner of this coveted award.
Synopsis of Rockbound
"Rockbound is an island off the coast of Nova Scotia, isolated by storms, fog and winter weather, and governed by its self-proclaimed "king", the sternly righteous and rapacious Uriah Jung. When the youthful David Jung arrives to claim his modest share of the island, he tries to find his way in an unforgiving, and controlled world. His conflicts are both internal and external, locking him in an unending struggle for survival. Sometimes the sea is his enemy, sometimes his own rude behavior, sometimes his best friend Gershom Born, sometimes his secret love for the island teacher Mary Dauphiny; but always, inevitably, his Jung relatives and their ambitions of money and power. Rockbound evokes the power, terror and dramatic beauty of the Atlantic, and paints a portrait of back-breaking labour, cunning bitterness and family strife in the decade preceding the first Great War." (Retrieved from CBC Canada Reads Website http://www.cbc.ca/canadareads/books.html#rockbound)
Sources Consulted:
Canada Reads. Rockbound Makes Waves. 2005 (Retrieved on March 31, 2005). http://www.cbc.ca/canadareads/winner.html
Revised on
Comments to the Webmaster