If I Could Turn and Meet Myself: The Life of Alden Nowlan - Softcover

Toner, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0864922655 ISBN 13: 9780864922656

Publisher: Goose Lane Editions, 2000

Synopsis

At his death in 1985, Alden Nowlan stood in the first rank of Canadian writers. Today, his poetry is beloved by Maritimers and popular across Canada and in the US as well. If I Could Turn and Meet Myself tells his life story, from his birth to a 14-year-old mother in 1933 through his impoverished childhood, his disturbed adolescence, his newspaper career, his struggle with cancer, and his tenure as writer-in-residence at the University of New Brunswick.

Nowlan founded his success and peace of mind on his belief that he was a composite of many selves. In 12 books of poetry, two novels, a book of stories, and 15 years of weekly columns for the Saint John Telegraph Journal, he fictionalized his own life. At the same time, he hid some of the most significant facts about his background from everyone, including those closest to him. His overall personal honesty ensured that even today people accept his "authorized version" as the full and only story.

In If I Could Turn and Meet Myself, Patrick Toner portrays a more complex and more richly humane Nowlan than any previous commentator, including Nowlan himself.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Alden Nowlan's success and peace of mind depended on his belief that he was a composite of selves; although he escaped his early life, he never escaped its grip on his emotions and imagination. In 12 books of poetry, two novels, a story collection, and 15 years of weekly newspaper columns, he fictionalized his own life. At the same time, he hid some of the most significant facts from everyone, including those closest to him. His personal honesty ensured that even today people accept his "authorized version" as the full and only story. If I Could Turn and Meet Myself, the first full-length book about this fascinating literary figure, sorts fact from fiction to portray a more complex and richly humane Nowlan than any previous commentator, including Nowlan himself.

From the Inside Flap:

Alden Nowlan was born near Windsor, Nova Scotia, in January, 1933, to a girl not yet fifteen years old and her hard-drinking husband. At his death in 1983, he stood in the first rank of Canadian writers. With a grade four education, Nowlan turned himself into a journalist and, after Bread, Wine and Salt won the 1967 Governor General's Award, one of Canada's most prominent poets. He also became writer in residence at the University of New Brunswick, a speech writer for Richard Hatfield, a playwright, and a nationally respected fiction writer. Nowlan escaped the suffering of his early life, but he never escaped its grip on his emotions and imagination. He wrote his own life in twelve books of poetry, two novels, a story collection, and fifteen years of weekly newspaper columns, yet he hid some of the most significant facts from everyone.

If I Could Turn and Meet Myself sorts reality from fiction to portray a more complex and richly humane Nowlan than any previous commentator, including Nowlan himself.

About this edition

• Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0864922655
• ISBN 13: 9780864922656
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 339