PRINT SOURCE: Thomas Raddall Fonds, Correspondence. From Thomas Raddall to Mr. Jack McClelland, July 17, 1978. MS-2-202 45.2.
Subject HeadingsIn his response to a letter of congratulations on the winning of the University of Alberta medal from his Canadian publisher, Jack McClelland, T. H. Raddall describes his recent trip to the Banff Centre in Alberta. He notes that the opportunity to meet with his contemporary W. O. Mitchell and compare writing experiences and philosophies was enjoyable. Raddall relates that his vision was much better after several operations and a period of adjustment to bifocals. He concludes the letter with a query about the possible publication of Canadian paperback editions of his titles just released by Doubleday.
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July 17, 1978 Mr. Jack McClelland,McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 25 Hollinger Road, Toronto, Ontario. Dear Jack: I found your letter awaiting me at Banff, and the duplicate lay in my post office box here when I got back. Thank you for your congratulations on receiving the University of Alberta medal. I was unable to go to Banff to receive it last sum- mer because of a second eye operation and its later complications. Indeed I was dubious about making such a long journey this year with my eyesight difficulties and my arthritic limp, but I'm glad I went. The Banff Centre people1 were very hospitable and help- ful, and I enjoyed joining in their writing seminar with Bill Mitchell.2 Comparing notes with Bill, I found that we both gave up steady jobs for the perilous chances of a free lance writer at about the same time. We were both resolved to stay in Canada and write entirely about Canada and the Canadians, and to make a living at it we had to get into top American magazines, which we did. Unknown to each other, and three thousand miles or so apart, we lifted two corners of that false picture of Canadian life painted by novelists like James Oliver Curwood3 and the moving pictures -- a country usually under snow, and populated thinly by Red-coated mounties with grand baritone voices, pretty Indian maidens who could warble like birds, an Eskimo or two in the background, and for comic relief a French ragamuffin who spoke a very funny kind of Eng- lish. In that respect Bill and I were pioneers. The thick lenses of my new glasses oblige me to be careful in short-range matters like going up and down stairs. They are bi-focals and for a long time I was bothered with double vision when I tried to read. That has been straightened out, and at Banff I was del- ighted to find that I could see well at long distances. I am able to drive my car locally as far as the golf course and my son's place at Hunt's Point, and I even play a weird travesty of golf for the sheer pleasure of movement in the sun and the sea air. In short, I'm enjoying life again after three years of hell that began with E's death in 1975, and then the long miserable struggle with blindness. With regard to Canadian paperback publication of the titles released by Doubleday, what's your proposition, Jack? Sorry I couldn't stop over at Toronto on my way home from Banff. My return flights had been booked and confirmed long before, and I felt that I couldn't risk, in view of the heavy holiday traffic, the slim chance of picking up a seat to Halifax. |
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