TORONTO \u2013Award-winning Canadian author Richard B. Wright was remembered Wednesday as \u201can astonishing observer of life\u201d who deftly balanced the demands of his accomplished literary career with his much-loved role as an educator.<\/p>\n
Wright died in hospital on Tuesday after sustaining a fall at home, according to his literary agent, Dean Cooke. He was 79.<\/p>\n
He made a literary splash with the publication of his debut novel, \u201cThe Weekend Man,\u201d in 1970, recalled Wright’s editor, Phyllis Bruce of Simon & Schuster Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an astonishing international success coming out of Toronto at a time when many of our writers had started to go international,\u201d said Bruce, who first teamed with Wright in the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n
The St. Catharines, Ont.-based Wright also wrote the acclaimed 2001 novel \u201cClara Callan,\u201d which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction and the Trillium Book Award.<\/p>\n
Set in the midst of the Great Depression, \u201cClara Callan\u201d unfolds in diary- and letter-form chronicling the lives of two sisters \u2013one a school teacher in small-town Ontario, the other a radio soap opera star in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe captured so perfectly women’s voices in that novel \u2013not only the main character of Clara, but that of her sister,\u201d Cooke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other thing was it was about a family, and a family that had a member that had lived an unconventional life. And I think so many of us have lived that experience in our wider family of the aunt or the uncle that didn’t live by the conventional rules. And I think that appealed to a lot of readers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bruce said the writer’s \u201cgreat insights into human nature\u201d are reflected in all of his works.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was an astonishing observer of life. He saw the large picture, but he saw all the small details of people’s lives. He was absolutely fascinated by the pattern of people’s lives, and he was so observant that the small details in his novels really make the novels real for the reader.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iris Tupholme of HarperCollins Canada, who published Wright’s work for two decades, described him as \u201ca generous and gracious person, a stylist and a person of great wisdom and empathy for his characters, particularly for women.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright juggled his writing with teaching duties at Ridley College in St. Catharines, where he taught English from 1976 to 1980 and again from 1986 to 2001.<\/p>\n
Bruce said the novelist would start writing in the wee hours before heading to his full-time teaching position. She recalled the Ridley library had a dedicated Richard B. Wright shelf where the author’s publications and his photo were showcased.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ran into a number of his students over the years and they’d always say what a brilliant teacher he was,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI’m not sure they were entirely aware of his renown, but they always said to me they also talked about how exciting his classes were, how he clearly loved what he was teaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said the teaching kept him young. You’re meeting young minds and seeing what their lives were going to be like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooke also admired Wright for \u201chis dedication and how hard he worked to become the successful writer that he did, something that I think young writers don’t always remember these days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will certainly remember him as a bit of a curmudgeon but one of the most well-humoured curmudgeons that I ever knew.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a great sense of humour about the world and about himself and the way things worked even when he looked upon it all with a bit of a gimlet eye.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just last year Wright published the Quebec City-set novel \u201cNightfall,\u201d a followup to \u201cOctober,\u201d which made the long lists for the Giller and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.<\/p>\n
\u201cOctober\u201d is narrated by the character James Hillyer, a retired English professor who travels to England to visit his daughter who’s been stricken with cancer. \u201cNightfall\u201d picks up after the death of his daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ending of life and the passing of time have always been preoccupations of mine,\u201d Wright said in a 2007 interview with The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s a preoccupation of most people in a secular humanist culture where religion for many has lost its potency. I’m conscious of how time is shrinking for me. I’m now 70 years old, and optimistically I’m only looking at another 120 months. Think of how fast a month goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright’s other novels include \u201cMr. Shakespeare’s Bastard\u201d and \u201cThe Age of Longing,\u201d which was shortlisted for the Giller Prize in 1995 and nominated for the Governor General’s Award for fiction.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis books were so different from one another, which is something that I greatly admired about him,\u201d said Cooke.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn’t find a formula and stick to it. He always found something new.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright is survived by his sons Christopher and Andrew, and grandchildren Gage, Millie, Sydney, Abbey and Nathan.<\/p>\n
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