Robertson Davies

Magician of Words

Nicholas Maes

• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781550028720
• eBook ISBN: 9781770705050
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Education Biographies
• Index: Literature

Born in Thamesville, Ontario, a student at Queen's University in Kingston in the 1930s, and editor and later publisher of the Peterborough Examiner from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, playwright, essayist, critic, professor, and novelist Robertson Davies (1913–1995) was one of Canada's pre-eminent literary voices for more than a half-century.

Davies, with his generous beard and donnish manner, was the very epitome of the "man of letters," a term he abhorred. Best known for his Deptford Trilogy of novels (Fifth Business, The Manticore, World of Wonders), he also wrote two other trilogies (Salterton and Cornish) and was at work on the third volume of another trilogy (Toronto) when he died. With a life as rich in character and colour as that found in his fiction and essays, Davies had a great fondness for magic and myth, both of which are found in abundance in his work, along with a prodigious streak of wry humour.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Author’s Note
• Prologue
• 1: Childhood
• 2: Youth
• 3: Merry Old England
• 4: Journalist and Playwright
• 5: The Salterton Trilogy
• 6: Massey College
• 7: The Deptford Trilogy
• 8: The Cornish Trilogy
• 9: The Final Frontier
• Epilogue: Elusive Voyager
• Chronology of Robertson Davies (1913–1995)
• Bibliography
• Index