I'm not sure this blog gets any traffic -- it's awfully hard to find -- but here are a few thoughts for those of you who might be interested in what it was like to be a Booker longlistee ...
A wild month of bewildered anticipation ended yesterday with the news that Consolation has won the 2007 Toronto Book Award and, at the same time, did not make the cut for the Man Booker shortlist. As you can imagine, it was quite a strange day.
Prizes are weird things for writers. Most of us don't write to be nominated or to win prizes, and yet it's impossible not to be aware of the huge (and ever-increasing) group of honours that our books are considered for. So after what is often years of private labour, the public life of a book runs the gauntlet of not only reviewers and readers (where its longevity is usually decided), but it is also filtered through the machinery of prize-making and prize-giving, and these are sometimes the most gut-wrenching phases of a book's (and its author's) life.
Most writers I know say that they fear and desire these honours about equally, and I would agree with them. We write primarily to reach others, but when we reach them, we'd rather be loved over the altenative. Awards are a public form of this yearned-for love, but most of us know coveting prizes is bad for us as writers. For one thing, it transforms us from strange neurotic people who operate mainly in private, to people who must try not to act strange and neurotic in public. It's surprising how many of us there are who can put together a pretty decent sentence on the page but who, when speaking publicly, can get to looking (in Orwell's memorable phrase) like a monkey on a stick.
But today, of all days, I should probably be a monkey on a stick for at least a few moments before getting back to real life. Because there were so many of you who sent your love and good wishes and both congrats and consoling words today, so for those of you I haven't said it to directly: thank you. There are very fews days where you go from joy to anxiety to brief sadness to relief all between sun-up and sundown and it was good to have friends and loved ones to share it with. I have to say though that it's the joy and relief that are sticking with me. My god, what an incredible ride, but freaking hell, I'm glad it's over.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
The old blog contents ...
Some background and acknowledgements
If you're here because you've read Consolation, you might be interested in some of the factual background to the novel. Some matters in the book are attributed incorrectly for the purposes of fiction, but here are some sources for them ...
Lord John Simcoe’s first parliament buildings, located approximately at the crossroads of Toronto’s contemporary Front and Parliament streets, is depicted in the novel as having been uncovered by David Hollis. In the real world, this actually happened in 2002, but the site was mapped and colocated by the archeologist Dr. Ron Williamson, with the support of Rollo Myers and the architectural firm of Brown & Storey. Dr. Williamson successfully deduced the location of the parliament and dug it up almost to the exact inch in the back of a carwash. Neither the mayor of the city at that time, nor any of his councillors would come and see this signally important find, and so the site was filled in within a week. At the time of this writing, the current mayor, David Miller, has expressed an interest in the site, but so far it remains covered over.
The panorama described in chapter seven of the novel is a real photograph, and was taken in thirteen parts in the early winter of 1857 by the firm of Armstrong, Beere, and Hime. This picture was lost until 1984, when it was rediscovered in the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices in London by Joan Schwartz. It can be found in its entirety, with an indispensible commentary, in William Dendy’s book Lost Toronto.
The buried boat depicted in the book was inspired by the discovery of the Commodore Jarvis during the excavation of the Air Canada Centre in 1997. A thorough description of the find, along with some maps and photographs, can be found on pp 44-47 of "The Archaeological Master Plan of the Central Waterfront City of Toronto, Ontario," prepared by Toronto's Archeological Services, Inc in 2003. You can view the entire document here.
The discovery of the boat inspired the poem below this post.
I'd also like to acknowledge Toronto's Harbour Castle Hilton hotel for access to the room that would have looked out on the site described in the book.
"Commodore Jarvis"
Lakes too, bearing up the clumsy steamers,
cheap galleons filled with lumber, fish, wood
for caskets. 1875. The city seeped forward - this July
they found the Commodore Jarvis rotting under the expressway
tore up its ash and dust for a new stadium. On its last trip,
it put in at the Yonge Street Pier, unloaded
apples from New York state, trout from Vermont.
Then they invented basketball. Mackenzie King
vied for control of the city's new electrics.
Charlie Conacher and Busher Jackson walked up Church
in their overcoats, lost to Detroit, walked home.
After a few years, radios started to get smaller,
they tore down the tall red trade centre
at Front and Yonge. My grandfather was born
across the ocean and they named him Israel. That same year
a boy from Corktown fell through the ice.
Hockey on lake Ontario. He lies there now,
undiscovered, or else
is beneath the foundation of a downtown hotel,
buried under landfill, under progress. He might be
preserved like the silvered bog men they found
in Scotland, his skin tight across his bones
his ribs rounded under the leather coat like
streetcar tracks mounded with snow.
Bibiliography
The following is a more-or-less complete bibiliography for Consolation. In addition to the below, many contemporary newspaper sources were used, chief among them the Globe from 1853 to 1857, and the Leader, from the same era. Both were newspapers were published in Ontario. Many contemporary maps were consulted as well.
Book titles in bold denote some of the novel's more important sources.
Toronto, history and architecture
“A Member of the Press”. The Hand-Book of Toronto. Toronto: Lovell and Gibson; 1858
Andre, John. Infant Toronto as Simcoe’s Folly. Toronto: Centennial Press, 1971
Andre, John. William Berczy: Co-founder of Toronto. Toronto: Centennial Press, 1967
Arthur, Eric and Otto, Stephen A. Toronto: No Mean City, 3rd edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986
Careless, J.M.S. Toronto, An Illustrated History to 1918. Toronto: Lorimer, 1984
Clark, C. S. Of Toronto the Good: The Queen City of Canada as it is. Toronto: The Toronto Publishing Company, 1898
Corelli, Rae. the toronto that used to be. Toronto: Toronto Star Limited, 1964
Dendy, William. Lost Toronto (2nd edition). Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1993
Dendy, William and Kilbourn, William. Toronto Observed: Its Architecture, Patrons, and History. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1986
Filey, Michael. A Toronto Album. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970
Firth, Edith G. The Town of York, A Collection of Documents of Early Toronto. Two volumes, 1793-1815, and 1815-1834. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962 and 1966
Goheen, Peter G. Victorian Toronto, 1850 to 1900. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1970
Guthrie, Ann. Don Valley Legacy: A Pioneer History. Boston Mills: The Boston Mills Press, 1986
Hoffman, Frances and Taylor, Ryan. Much To Be Done: Private Life in Ontario from Victorian Diaries. Toronto: Natural Heritage, 1996
Hounsome, Eric. Toronto in 1810. Toronto: Coles Publishing Co, 1975
Hutcheson, Stephanie. Yorkville in Pictures, 1853 to 1883
McHugh, Patricia. Toronto Architecture: A City Guide. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1985
Middleton, Jesse Edgar. Toronto’s 100 Years. Toronto: The Corporation of the City of Toronto, 1934
Morton, Desmond. Mayor Howland: The Citizens’ Candidate. Toronto: Hakkert, 1973
Mulvaney, Pelham. Toronto: Past and Present. Toronto: W. E. Caigher,1884
Parsons, Jennifer and Lilliman, Kevin. Toronto 1837: A Model City. Toronto: The Town of York Historical Society, 1995
Robertson, John Ross. Landmarks of Toronto, six volumes. Toronto: The Toronto Evening Telegram, 1894-1914
Scadding, Henry. Toronto of Old. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966
Taylor, Conygham Crawford. Toronto Called Back. Toronto: W. Briggs, 1886
Thompson, Samuel. Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer. Hunter, Rose & Co, 1884
Walker, Frank N. Sketches of Old Toronto. London: Longmans, 1965
Victorian Canada
Abrahamson, Una. Domestic Life in Nineteenth Century Canada. Toronto: Burns & MacEachern, 1966
Smith, William H. Smith’s Canadian Gazetteer. Toronto: H & W Rowsell, 1846
Victorian Life
Altick, Richard D. Victorian People and Ideas. New York: Norton, 1973
Chesney, Kellow. The Victorian Underworld. New York: Schocken Books, 1970
George, M. Dorothy. London Life in the Eighteenth Century. London: Capricorn, 1965
MacKenzie, John M, editor. The Victorian Vision. London: V & A Publications, 2001
Medical matters
Johnson, Laurence, A.M., M.D. A Medical Formulary Based on United States and British Pharmocopaeias Together with Numerous French, German, and Unofficial Preparations. New York: William Wood & Co, 1881
Hodgson, Barbara. In The Arms of Morpheus. Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2001
Various contributors. Living with ALS, in four volumes. The ALS Association, 2002
Photography
Bajac, Quentin. The Invention of Photography. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002
Buckland, Gail. Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography. Boston: David R. Godine, 1980
Burnett-Brown, Anthony, Gray, Michael, and Roberts, Russell. Specimens and Marvels: William Henry Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography. New York: Aperture, 1995
Clarke, Graham. The Photograph. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997
Isenburg, Matthew R. “The Making of a Daguerreotype” (pamphlet) 2001
Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1997
Richter, Stefan. The Art of the Dageurreotype. London: Viking, 1990
Rinhart, Floyd and Marion. American Miniature Case Art. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1969
If you're here because you've read Consolation, you might be interested in some of the factual background to the novel. Some matters in the book are attributed incorrectly for the purposes of fiction, but here are some sources for them ...
Lord John Simcoe’s first parliament buildings, located approximately at the crossroads of Toronto’s contemporary Front and Parliament streets, is depicted in the novel as having been uncovered by David Hollis. In the real world, this actually happened in 2002, but the site was mapped and colocated by the archeologist Dr. Ron Williamson, with the support of Rollo Myers and the architectural firm of Brown & Storey. Dr. Williamson successfully deduced the location of the parliament and dug it up almost to the exact inch in the back of a carwash. Neither the mayor of the city at that time, nor any of his councillors would come and see this signally important find, and so the site was filled in within a week. At the time of this writing, the current mayor, David Miller, has expressed an interest in the site, but so far it remains covered over.
The panorama described in chapter seven of the novel is a real photograph, and was taken in thirteen parts in the early winter of 1857 by the firm of Armstrong, Beere, and Hime. This picture was lost until 1984, when it was rediscovered in the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices in London by Joan Schwartz. It can be found in its entirety, with an indispensible commentary, in William Dendy’s book Lost Toronto.
The buried boat depicted in the book was inspired by the discovery of the Commodore Jarvis during the excavation of the Air Canada Centre in 1997. A thorough description of the find, along with some maps and photographs, can be found on pp 44-47 of "The Archaeological Master Plan of the Central Waterfront City of Toronto, Ontario," prepared by Toronto's Archeological Services, Inc in 2003. You can view the entire document here.
The discovery of the boat inspired the poem below this post.
I'd also like to acknowledge Toronto's Harbour Castle Hilton hotel for access to the room that would have looked out on the site described in the book.
"Commodore Jarvis"
Lakes too, bearing up the clumsy steamers,
cheap galleons filled with lumber, fish, wood
for caskets. 1875. The city seeped forward - this July
they found the Commodore Jarvis rotting under the expressway
tore up its ash and dust for a new stadium. On its last trip,
it put in at the Yonge Street Pier, unloaded
apples from New York state, trout from Vermont.
Then they invented basketball. Mackenzie King
vied for control of the city's new electrics.
Charlie Conacher and Busher Jackson walked up Church
in their overcoats, lost to Detroit, walked home.
After a few years, radios started to get smaller,
they tore down the tall red trade centre
at Front and Yonge. My grandfather was born
across the ocean and they named him Israel. That same year
a boy from Corktown fell through the ice.
Hockey on lake Ontario. He lies there now,
undiscovered, or else
is beneath the foundation of a downtown hotel,
buried under landfill, under progress. He might be
preserved like the silvered bog men they found
in Scotland, his skin tight across his bones
his ribs rounded under the leather coat like
streetcar tracks mounded with snow.
Bibiliography
The following is a more-or-less complete bibiliography for Consolation. In addition to the below, many contemporary newspaper sources were used, chief among them the Globe from 1853 to 1857, and the Leader, from the same era. Both were newspapers were published in Ontario. Many contemporary maps were consulted as well.
Book titles in bold denote some of the novel's more important sources.
Toronto, history and architecture
“A Member of the Press”. The Hand-Book of Toronto. Toronto: Lovell and Gibson; 1858
Andre, John. Infant Toronto as Simcoe’s Folly. Toronto: Centennial Press, 1971
Andre, John. William Berczy: Co-founder of Toronto. Toronto: Centennial Press, 1967
Arthur, Eric and Otto, Stephen A. Toronto: No Mean City, 3rd edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986
Careless, J.M.S. Toronto, An Illustrated History to 1918. Toronto: Lorimer, 1984
Clark, C. S. Of Toronto the Good: The Queen City of Canada as it is. Toronto: The Toronto Publishing Company, 1898
Corelli, Rae. the toronto that used to be. Toronto: Toronto Star Limited, 1964
Dendy, William. Lost Toronto (2nd edition). Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1993
Dendy, William and Kilbourn, William. Toronto Observed: Its Architecture, Patrons, and History. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1986
Filey, Michael. A Toronto Album. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970
Firth, Edith G. The Town of York, A Collection of Documents of Early Toronto. Two volumes, 1793-1815, and 1815-1834. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962 and 1966
Goheen, Peter G. Victorian Toronto, 1850 to 1900. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1970
Guthrie, Ann. Don Valley Legacy: A Pioneer History. Boston Mills: The Boston Mills Press, 1986
Hoffman, Frances and Taylor, Ryan. Much To Be Done: Private Life in Ontario from Victorian Diaries. Toronto: Natural Heritage, 1996
Hounsome, Eric. Toronto in 1810. Toronto: Coles Publishing Co, 1975
Hutcheson, Stephanie. Yorkville in Pictures, 1853 to 1883
McHugh, Patricia. Toronto Architecture: A City Guide. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1985
Middleton, Jesse Edgar. Toronto’s 100 Years. Toronto: The Corporation of the City of Toronto, 1934
Morton, Desmond. Mayor Howland: The Citizens’ Candidate. Toronto: Hakkert, 1973
Mulvaney, Pelham. Toronto: Past and Present. Toronto: W. E. Caigher,1884
Parsons, Jennifer and Lilliman, Kevin. Toronto 1837: A Model City. Toronto: The Town of York Historical Society, 1995
Robertson, John Ross. Landmarks of Toronto, six volumes. Toronto: The Toronto Evening Telegram, 1894-1914
Scadding, Henry. Toronto of Old. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966
Taylor, Conygham Crawford. Toronto Called Back. Toronto: W. Briggs, 1886
Thompson, Samuel. Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer. Hunter, Rose & Co, 1884
Walker, Frank N. Sketches of Old Toronto. London: Longmans, 1965
Victorian Canada
Abrahamson, Una. Domestic Life in Nineteenth Century Canada. Toronto: Burns & MacEachern, 1966
Smith, William H. Smith’s Canadian Gazetteer. Toronto: H & W Rowsell, 1846
Victorian Life
Altick, Richard D. Victorian People and Ideas. New York: Norton, 1973
Chesney, Kellow. The Victorian Underworld. New York: Schocken Books, 1970
George, M. Dorothy. London Life in the Eighteenth Century. London: Capricorn, 1965
MacKenzie, John M, editor. The Victorian Vision. London: V & A Publications, 2001
Medical matters
Johnson, Laurence, A.M., M.D. A Medical Formulary Based on United States and British Pharmocopaeias Together with Numerous French, German, and Unofficial Preparations. New York: William Wood & Co, 1881
Hodgson, Barbara. In The Arms of Morpheus. Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2001
Various contributors. Living with ALS, in four volumes. The ALS Association, 2002
Photography
Bajac, Quentin. The Invention of Photography. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002
Buckland, Gail. Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography. Boston: David R. Godine, 1980
Burnett-Brown, Anthony, Gray, Michael, and Roberts, Russell. Specimens and Marvels: William Henry Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography. New York: Aperture, 1995
Clarke, Graham. The Photograph. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997
Isenburg, Matthew R. “The Making of a Daguerreotype” (pamphlet) 2001
Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1997
Richter, Stefan. The Art of the Dageurreotype. London: Viking, 1990
Rinhart, Floyd and Marion. American Miniature Case Art. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1969
This is the new Consolation blog
Folks, I'm not sure what happened with "redhillconsolation" except that, er, it's been taken over somehow by porn. Not exactly what I'd intended. I'm sorry.
Some people may be seeking out this blog now that Consolation has been longlisted for the Booker prize, so I'm putting up the text that used to be at the other place for people to look at again. I had intended this blog to be a static information spot, but I may come back and write a few thoughts down on the Booker. Then again, I may not. I have another blog, which records our adventures in France -- it's here, and it's probably more interesting than anything I'd have to say about the Booker!
Sorry for all the confusion ...
Michael
Some people may be seeking out this blog now that Consolation has been longlisted for the Booker prize, so I'm putting up the text that used to be at the other place for people to look at again. I had intended this blog to be a static information spot, but I may come back and write a few thoughts down on the Booker. Then again, I may not. I have another blog, which records our adventures in France -- it's here, and it's probably more interesting than anything I'd have to say about the Booker!
Sorry for all the confusion ...
Michael
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