Village Squire, 1976-11, Page 35ABOUT BOOKS
Harold Who? overlooked in era of `sick' prose
Conversations about the new Writer -in -
Residence at The University of Western
Ontario generally go something like this:
"Who's the Writer -in -Residence this
year?"
"Harold Horwood."
"Harold who?"
The profile of Harold Horwood, or
Harold Who, as he's most often called by
the 'uncognoscente' on campus, is low to
say the least.
"I'm not surprised I've been unduly
neglected. It's because I've deliberately
set out to flout popular conventions.
"1 won't write a book with an anti-hero
in it and I'm not part of the current
psychologically sick society. If you don't
write sick prose in the 1960's, you didn't
get any attention.
"I get a fair bit of fan mail. Most of it
irritates me. People usually like your books
for the wrong reasons. The public is an ass.
I value the opinion of other writers much
more than anyone and 1 certainly don't
value the opinion of the critics, although
my books are consistently well -reviewed.
"Why do I write? I write for a living for a
start. Writing a book of popular history is
one of the easier ways I know of making
$8,000."
Harold Horwood is a phenomenon that's
about as rare as a colony of Butler's Garter
Snakes - a Canadian who makes a
respectable living in Canada writing books.
"I'm a full-time professional writer. This
is the first salaried job I've had in the
1970's. To support myself as a writer I've
had to write quite a lot and a number of
different things."
Geography is definitely a factor in the
making or breaking of a writer. Mr.
Horwood comes from the province that
many people regard as a national joke. A
place like Beachy Cove, Newfoundland is a
fine place to come from but most
small-town writers find themselves pack-
ing up and heading for Toronto at the first
pangs of ambition, Mr. Horwood observes.
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Prof. Tom Collins, Chairman of
Western's English department says of
Harold Horwood:
"He's a very accomplished man in many
different areas. He's not well-known
because writers from Ontario tend to get
more coverage.
"Evidence that he's good is his Canada
Council Senior Arts Award last year. Our
offer of the post of Writer -in -Residence
was one of the two he had for this year."
Harold Horwood resisted the temptation
to move to the heart of the Canadian
literary market until he was well along in
his career.
"Living in Toronto helps, you know," he
remarks pointedly.
Since 1966 he's published seven books,
all of them money-makers except for
"Voices Underground", a book of poetry.
Generally speaking, books of poetry and
short stories don't sell well in Canada, so
Mr. Horwood tends to shrug off the lack of
sales.
1
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Village Squire/No.ember 1976, 33