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Biography & Autobiography General

Notes on a Writer's Life

A Memoir

by (author) Davis Adams Richards

Publisher
Pottersfield Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2023
Category
General, General
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781990770289
    Publish Date
    Sep 2023
    List Price
    $59.85

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Description

Notes on a Writer’s Life is the author’s account of his more than fifty years as a writer. It chronicles his early childhood, his high school years of turmoil and rebellion, and his uneasy relationship with both publishers and academics. Throughout, Richards records his continuous investigation into human conflict, into the chasm between the seeking of power and the knowledge of love. The book also deliberates on his examination into the nature of violence, both overt and coercive, that he has considered in thirty-five books. Richards describes his travels to various parts of the world, his love of the sea, his love of Spain, and his fight against alcoholism. Crucially and poignantly, he recounts how for years his wife Peggy has been his greatest ally and supporter.

 

Notes on a Writer’s Life also includes his relationships with other writers – his respect for Alden Nowlan, Alistair MacLeod, P.K. Page, Joel Hines, and Patrick Lane, and his friendship with Ray Fraser among others. Here, too, are his views on writers like Orwell, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

 

Readers will learn of his determination to write against the odds, from the early books like The Coming of Winter, Blood Ties and Lives of Short Duration, to his later works, such as Mercy Among the Children, Crimes Against My Brother, and Darkness. Richards believes that suffering is inherent and so is joy. He reflects on the absolute necessity of reaching toward a spiritual life (if not a religious one) as well as his knowledge of war and revolutions, and how both swallow humanity’s greater need for justice and liberty.

About the author

Author of thirty-five books, David Adams Richards has won the Governor General’s Award in both fiction and non-fiction as well as the Giller Prize. He is a member of the Order of New Brunswick, the Order of Canada, and was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2017. He divides his time between Ottawa and Fredericton.

Davis Adams Richards' profile page