WALRUS MAGAZINE -- April 2010   Al and Me   by George Bowering

The Al Purdy A-frame Anthology Reviews:
http://robmclennan.blogspot.com/2010/01/al-purdy-frame-anthology.html
http://imprint.uwaterloo.ca/2010/jan/8/arts-and-entertainment/al-purdy-frame-anthology/
http://this.org/blog/2010/03/18/al-purdy-aframe-anthology/
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Precious+moments+poems/2681450/story.html

A-FRAME ANTHOLOGY LAUNCHED ACROSS CANADA -- The Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology is being launched across Canada!

On November 18th, 2009, it was launched at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto with Dennis Lee, Michael Ondaatje, Paul Vermeersch, Dave Bidini, Steven Heighton, John Degen, Geoff Heinricks, Russell Brown, John Reeves & others.

On November 11th it was launched at the University of Waterloo's School of Architecture with Duncan Patterson & George Bowering.

And on November 27th it was launched on the west coast, at the Community Arts Council Gallery of Greater Victoria, with Victoria's poet laureate Linda Rogers, along with Susan Stenson, Peter Trower and Len Gasparini.

THE A-FRAME ANTHOLOGY -- The Al Purdy A-Frame Trust has published a book, The Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology, through Harbour Publishing. The book consists of contributions by prominent members of the literary community who visited the Purdys during the fifty years they occupied the property, along with writings by Al Purdy in which the property is mentioned. Selling through trade outlets for $26.95, the anthology will raise an estimated $10,000 for the project. Its main purpose will be to promote awareness of the property's importance in Canadian literary history and encourage support across Canada for its preservation.

SAVING THE HOUSE AL BUILT -- Kevin Van Paassen/ The Globe and Mail

Poetic myths can be hard to sustain in a prosy age, but every versifier in Canada will tell you something uncanny happened 50 years ago on a bush lot in the country south of Belleville, Ont., where local couple Al and Eurithe Purdy had retreated after the former's failure to thrive as a writer in the big city of Montreal, where they built a cramped “A-frame” shack to live in and survived on such delicacies as wild asparagus and roadkill.

“It's well known that when Purdy began his career as a poet he was quite a terrible writer,” says Paul Vermeersch, editor of a new book, The Al Purdy A-Frame Anthology, that celebrates the magical transformation of a literally starving hack into the breakthrough voice of modern Canadian English.

“I don't want to paint any supernatural picture or anything,” Vermeersch adds. “But moving to Ameliasburgh was the missing piece in the puzzle. As Atwood has said, it's the moment when Purdy's poetry suddenly shifts from being terrible to being remarkable. It was when he began writing there that it happened.”

Poet after poet extols the majesty of that “it” in the pages of the A-Frame Anthology: Michael Ondaatje, Dennis Lee, George Bowering, Margaret Atwood and a host of lesser known belletrists, all of whom hovered like bugs around the shining light of Ameliasburgh from the 1960s until Purdy's death in 2000. Many of them are gathering again tonight at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre, both to launch the book and to make a plea for the preservation of the humble landmark.

The Toronto gathering is one of four organized this fall and winter to raise funds to buy the old house from Eurithe, 85, restore it to habitable condition and operate it as a retreat for future generations of Canadian writers. Last week, an event was held in Waterloo, Ont. and the others will take place in late November and December in Halifax and Victoria.

“It's not just a shack in the woods,” says Jean Baird, the Vancouver editor who is leading the preservation effort. “It has been a pilgrimage place for decades for young writers – for all writers.” Acolytes who never knew Purdy or drank his wild-grape wine out of old whisky bottles still leave totems on his nearby grave, according to Baird. “If the e-mails I get are any indication, the back roads of Prince Edward County are full of lost poets, looking for the A-frame.”

There's nothing else like it in the country, she adds. The boyhood home of Pierre Berton in Dawson City operates today as a writers' retreat, but that late author never wrote there and wouldn't recognize it if he were alive today, according to Baird. Purdy not only hand-built and lived in the A-frame, he made it and its landscape the focus of some of his finest poems. “Berton House doesn't have the clout of this place,” Baird says. “On a heritage meter, this one's off the charts.”

Not only a place of pilgrimage for such young, unpublished writers as Michael Ondaatje, the Purdy A-frame also appears to have functioned as the drunken boat of Canadian literature. Blackouts, broken legs and furious arguments mark the anthologized reminiscences.

Atwood contributed a cartoon in which a petite young ingenue sipping homemade wine experiences “a sudden attack of bladder cancer.” A spectacular portrait by photographer John Reeves summarizes the prevailing mood. “Several years later, Al would say, ‘No, I've never met John Reeves,'” Baird says.

Organizers of the Al Purdy A-Frame Trust hope to raise $1-million to repair the house and create an endowment that will enable young writers to use it. “The place will come down if we don't succeed,” Baird says. In the eyes of the 21st-century real-estate market, the shack is no more than a blight on a desirable lakefront lot.

“But I and many others think it's the most important literary house in the country,” she adds. “We really need Canadians to step up. This is not the time for people to be saying, ‘Somebody else will do it' – because it won't happen.”

DENISE BUKOWSKI REMINISCENCE

The United Nations declared 1975 International Women’s Year, and Jack McClelland decided he had to do something about it. So he put out a public call for poetry by Canadian women, in aid of producing an anthology of the best of it. And he volunteered Al Purdy and me, his editor, to make the selection. Both of us heard about it first in the press, whereupon Jack also volunteered me to spend a long holiday weekend at the A-frame, sifting through the submissions. The irony of Jack McClelland choosing Al Purdy to compile a collection of poetry by women was lost on us all at the time.

I was married then. On a Friday night in the summer of 1974, my husband and I chugged east along the 401 toward Ameliasburg in our black Volkswagen beetle, weighed down with bags of female verse gifted to us by Jack. When we arrived at the A-frame, Al and Eurithe were there to greet us. Stalwart Eurithe would keep us well stoked with good food for the next three days and nights while Al and I took on the daunting task before us.

The house’s stunning views over Roblin Lake -- and breaks to canoe its rosy, mirrored surface at dusk -- provided our only other solace.

The first thing I discovered was why so many people have war injuries from their visits to this famous abode. I had assumed that the consumption of large amounts of alcohol was to blame, but I quickly learned that it was hard not to hurt yourself while sober. For the house was truly cobbled together, with no two rooms on exactly the same plane, and few surfaces level, especially when it came to the outhouse. Tripping over doorways was a way of life; you had to learn to do it balletically -- and to remain seated after Al broke out his wine.

Al’s hang-dog mug grew longer and longer as the hours ticked by. He was definitely not amused by the new piles of envelopes that appeared every time we cleared one heap off the dining room table. We made three stacks: Yes, No, and Maybe. Al would make the final selection. My main job was to count lines and determine when we had enough to fill a collection.

The No stack soon was immense. After 24 hours we weren’t exactly sure how some of the poems got into that Yes pile. We started to announce the choicest bits aloud to entertain our spouses. By day 2 we were giggling. By day 3 the home-made wine appeared soon after breakfast. (I don’t recall what my ex-husband did with himself all this time; he may have been off in the bush considering his options, because by the end of 1977 we had separated.)

Al and I discovered some marvelous hidden gems among the dross, but by Monday morning the marathon task had reduced us to quivering lumps. After we packed the Yes pile in the trunk of the VW Bug and were ready to leave, Al gave me a specially inscribed copy of his 1962 collection, Poems for All the Annettes, in gratitude for my assistance.

I have been as far as China; I have also been to India and all the countries between here and there. But nothing compares to my poetic weekend in the house that Al built.

--Denise Bukowski

NATIONAL AL PURDY DAY (APRIL 21, 2009) -- In recognition of the importance of Al Purdy to Canadian poetry, the iconic symbol of the A-frame to Canadian culture, and in support of the Purdy A-frame Trust, the League of Canadian Poets officially declared APRIL 21, 2009 NATIONAL AL PURDY DAY. All Canadian poets and lovers of Canadian poetry were encouraged to host a Purdy Party to raise funds to preserve this important cultural and heritage property.

ACADEMIC CAMPAIGN -- The following letter, written by Dr. David Bentley of the University of Western Ontario and co-signed by 40 of his colleagues from universities coast-to-coast, was distributed late February to all post-secondary institutions, Canadian literature and Canadian studies organizations.

“Al Purdy has been described at various times and by various writers as the “first,” the “last,” and the “most” Canadian poet, but for many of us he is simply the Canadian poet – the poet who captured and came to personify the distinctive genius of Canada. In a creative career that began when he was serving with the R.C.A.F in Vancouver during the Second World War to his death in 2000, he wrote with passion, commitment, and brilliant insight about almost every part of Canada and every aspect of Canadian life, past and present. No anthology of Canadian literature would be complete without such Purdy masterpieces as “The Cariboo Horses,” “The Country North of Belleville,” “Trees at the Arctic Circle,” “Wilderness Gothic,” “Lament for the Dorsets,” “Roblin’s Mills,” and “Elegy for a Grandfather.” Among Purdy’s many honours were two Governor General’s Awards, the Order of Ontario, and the Order of Canada.

“During much of his writing life, Al Purdy lived and drew inspiration from the A-frame house that he and his wife Eurithe built in 1957on the shores of Roblin Lake, near Ameliasburgh, Ontario. It was there that he wrote many of his masterpieces. It was there that he communed imaginatively with the Loyalists who settled in Prince Edward County. It was there that he discussed the past and future of Canadian literature well into the night with Milton Acorn, Margaret Laurence, Michael Ondaatje, and many other friends, including, it is rumoured, John Labatt and Johnnie Walker. In a quite literal way Eurithe’s and Al’s A-frame is part of the fabric of Canadian literature and Canadian culture: among the “ingredients” of its chimney, he wrote in “Place of Fire,” are “limestone from an 1840 Regency house,” “historic stone from the Roblin gristmill site,” “anonymous stone from Norris Whitney’s barnyard,” and “some pickup loads from the Point Anne quarry” near Kingston. There is surely no more striking and concrete metaphor than the Purdys’ A-frame house for the integration of past and present, everyday and historied, Canadian literature and the Canadian landscape that lies at the very heart of Al’s poetry.

“But now the A-frame is threatened with sale and demolition. If this were allowed to happen, not only would a unique piece of Canada’s literary and cultural heritage disappear, but so, too, would a unique opportunity to preserve the A-frame as an inspiration for present and future Canadians and Canadian writers. So we are asking all our colleagues in English departments and Canadian Studies programs across Canada and abroad to support the Al Purdy A-Frame Trust, under which writers will be offered the opportunity to live and work in a space and place of inspirational literary and historic significance and resonance. Please help in any ways that you can – by writing a cheque, holding an auction, having a bake sale ... and please encourage colleagues and friends to do so as well. Canada has not done an admirable job of preserving its literary sites. Together we can change that in the case of the Purdys’ A-frame, and, by doing so, honour the memory and the work of one of Canada’s most important and beloved poets: Al Purdy."

Cheques can be made to “The Al Purdy A-frame Trust” and mailed to
4403 West 11th Ave.,
Vancouver BC
V6R 2M2
For more information contact Jean Baird at jeanbaird@shaw.ca or 604-224-4898

Regards,

David Bentley, FRSC
Carl E. Klinck Professor in Canadian Literature
University of Western Ontario

Douglas Barbour
Professor Emeritus
Department of English
University of Alberta

Gregory Betts
Assistant Professor
English Language & Literature
Brock University

Christian Bök
English Department
University of Calgary

Stephanie Bolster
Associate Professor
Concordia University

George Bowering, OC, OBC
Professor Emeritus
Simon Fraser University

George Clark
Professor Emeritus and Adjunct
Queen's University
Department of English

Terrance Cox
Adjunct Professor, Department of Communications, Popular Culture and Film;
Brock University

Mary di Michele
Professor
Concordia University

Adam Dickinson
Assistant Professor
Department of English Language and Literature
Brock University

Stan Dragland
Professor Emeritus
University of Western ON

Dr. Gary Geddes,
Adjunct Professor, Creative Writing, UBC
Professor Emeritus, Concordia University

Laurence Hutchman
Professeur titulaire
Universite de Moncton, Campus d'Edmundston

Dean Irvine
Associate Professor
Director, Editing Modernism in Canada (EMiC)
Collection Director, Canadian Literature Collection/Collection de littérature canadienne (University of Ottawa Press)
Department of English
Dalhousie University

Rosemary J. Jolly
Professor
Department of English; Institute of Population and Public Health
Queen's University

Kiley Kapuscinski
Queen's University
Sessional Adjunct

Afra Kavanagh
Asst Professor
Dept of Languages
Cape Breton University

Dr. Cheryl Lousley
Postdoctoral Fellow
School of English and Centre for Canadian Studies, University of Leeds

Jeanette Lynes
Associate Professor of English
St. Francis Xavier University

Robert G. May
Assistant Professor (Adjunct)
Department of English
Queen's University

Seymour Mayne
Professor, Department of English
University of Ottawa/Université d'Ottawa

Stephen McCaffery
Professor, David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters
University of Buffalo

Gabrielle McIntire
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Queen's University

Sam McKegney
Assistant Professor of Indigenous and Canadian Literatures
Department of English, Queen’s University

Ken McLean
Professor(retired)
Bishop's University

Leslie Monkman
Professor Emeritus
Department of English
Queen's University

Laura Moss,
Associate Professor, Department of English, UBC
Acting Editor, Canadian Literature: A Quarterly of Criticism and Review
Director, UBC Canadian Studies Centre and Program

John Oughton
Learning and Teaching Consultant
Centre for Organizational Learning and Teaching
Office of Organizational Learning
Centennial College

Dan Pinsent
Queen's University
Graduate Student (PhD)

Leslie Ritchie
Associate Professor of English,
Queen's University

Wendy Roy
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Saskatchewan

Carolyn Smart
Director of Creative Writing
Queen's University

David Staines
Department of English
University of Ottawa

Margaret Steffler
Associate Professor
Department of English Literature
Trent University

Robert Thacker
Professor of Canadian Studies and English
Associate Dean for Academic Advising Programs
St. Lawrence University, NY

Tracy Ware
Professor of English
Queen's University

Tom Wayman,
Associate Professor, English Dept.
University of Calgary