National bestseller and a Globe and Mail Best Book
A fascinating, larger-than-life character, Davies left a treasure trove
of stories about him when he died in 1995 -- expertly arranged here into
a revealing portrait.
From his student days onward, Robertson Davies made a huge impression on
those around him. He was so clearly bound for a glorious future that
some young friends even carefully preserved his letters. And everyone
remembered their encounters with him.
Later in life, as a world-famous writer, perhaps Canada's pre-eminent
man of letters (who "looked like Jehovah"), he attracted people eager to
meet him, who also vividly remembered their meetings. So when Val Ross
set out in search of people's memories, she was faced with a wonderful
embarrassment of riches.
The one hundred or so contributors here range very widely. There are
family memories, of course, and memories from colleagues in the academic
world who knew him as a professor and the founding master of Massey
College at the University of Toronto.
Predictably, there are other major writers like Margaret Atwood and John
Irving. Less predictably, there are people from the world of Hollywood,
such as Norman Jewison and David Cronenberg (who remembers Davies
on-set, peering through a camera lens as he researched his newest
novel). And we even hear from his barber, and from his gardener, Theo
Henkenhaf.
Some speakers contribute just a lively paragraph; others several pages.
Yet all of them, through the magic of Val Ross's art, help to create an
intriguing, full-colour portrait of a complex man beloved by millions of
readers around the world.
