TIFF

“Written with great sensitivity and attention to detail, Grace’s comprehensive biography succeeds in giving a complete picture of its subject as an individual and an artist.” - Publishers Weekly“A meticulously researched deep dive into a troubled and fascinating life—passionate, engaged, often messy, vastly rewarding.” - Margaret Atwood“Memory and remembering were central to Timothy Findley’s life and work—and equally to Sherrill Grace’s outstanding biography of the celebrated Canadian author. Drawing impressively and insightfully on a vast archive of letters, photos, journals, diaries, and interviews, and on her own towering talents as one of Canada’s foremost literary scholars, Grace presents a compelling portrait of a complex man and brilliant multifaceted writer—himself a master of auto/biography—whose professional and personal experiences tracked the far-reaching changes of late-20th-century Canada’s social and cultural landscape.” - - Christl Verduyn, Mount Allison University“A tactful, sensitive, generous, storyteller, Sherrill Grace recounts the life of one of Canada’s greatest storytellers, illuminating his life and work, the people he knew and the cultural times in which he performed that life so passionately. We follow him as he learns his craft through writing and through living that intense, well-examined, if often tormented, life. At once learned and elegant, this immensely readable biography is a glorious summing up of all the themes of his work and life.” - Linda Hutcheon, University of Toronto, author of The Canadian Postmodern“A powerful, eye-opening portrait of the artist as an anguished man who tried desperately to live by his motto: Against despair.” - Jerry Wasserman, Emeritus Professor of English and Theatre, UBC, editor of Modern Canadian Plays“Sherrill Grace brings thoughtful attention to both the man and the work, the latter of which notably marked the national literature by its particular obsessions and inventions.” - Andrew Pyper, author of The Demonologist and The Homecoming

Sherrill Grace, OC, FRSC, is a University Killam Professor Emerita at the University of British Columbia. She specializes in Canadian literature and culture and has published extensively in these areas. Her recent books include Inventing Tom Thomson (2004), Canada and the Idea of North (2007), Making Theatre: A Life of Sharon Pollock (2008), and Landscapes of War and Memory (2014).