While I was in the process of self-publishing More Precious Than Rubies, I generated other ideas for future books.
The “good friend” mentioned in my blogs of December and January was a former teacher and mentor of mine. As far back as May 2012, I had considered writing about his life and his incredible effect on his high school students.
A lot transpired from 2012 to 2017 while I took on various writing projects. I spent a lot of time collecting data for the memoir of my friend. I had a lot of firsthand information since I travelled often with him. Although he had selections of his poetry published in Canadian anthologies and wrote book reviews for literary magazines, he was never regarded as a well-known Canadian author. Yet in 1973, he wrote a book entitled, The Neglected Genre: The Short Story in Canada.
In the early 70’s, he was an invaluable peer to up-and-coming and established writers such as Margaret Atwood, Irving Layton, Alden Nowlan, Joyce Carol Oates, and Miriam Waddington because he featured their poetry in anthologies. He was a force in the Canadian industry at a time when Canadian literature was often being overlooked.
By 2017, I published a short book about his life and his influences. When we travelled to San Miguel de Allende (see previous blogs), we regularly visited our favourite restaurant, El Pegaso. The staff were used to seeing us at our corner table, soon to be labelled la oficina. In August 2017, I visited the town and dropped off a copy of the book, Remembering Clare, to the owners of the restaurant. They remembered us sitting together. In fact, the back cover of the book shows a photograph of my friend’s reflection in one of the restaurant’s windows.
I also distributed the book to some of his colleagues from The Oxford Tradition, a programme set up for North American students to take courses at Oxford University in the summers. My friend was chosen as one of the summer deans, an experience which he cherished until his unfortunate death on September 4, 2004.
Here’s to you, my friend. May we meet again.
We’re after the same rainbow’s end
Waitin’ ‘round the bend
My huckleberry friend
- Moon River, Henry Mancini
