Winner of the 2010 Donald Grant Creighton Award
Artist Frances Gage, born in 1924 in Windsor, experienced both artistic recognition and acute despair in her life, yet she flourished in her work and as part of the contemporary Toronto art scene. A friend of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, she developed a greater connection with the Group of Seven, working closely with Frederick Varley and producing reliefs of both him and A.Y. Jackson while working in Tom Thomson’s shack
Frances remained focused and positive and became a successful sculptor, creating more than five hundred works of art. Still, even though she achieved the dream she strove toward during all the years of struggle, she discovered that the Dante-like Paradise she had sought and gained was instead the poet’s Inferno in disguise. Her correspondence, as referenced in this remarkable biography, bears out this insight in a life often marked by unsatisfying triumph over tragedy. It presents a candid view of one of Canada’s most fascinating artists of the twentieth century.

Alan D. Butcher was born in Vancouver, B.C. and has been writing all his life. He has written advertising materials, worked in the Canadian Arctic, and wrote and produced "The Chase Almanac" for 25 years. His previously published books include "I Remember Haida" (Lancelot Press, 1985), "Ale & Beer" (McClelland & Stewart, 1989), and "Unlikely Paradise: The Life of Francis Gage" (Dundurn Press, 2009). Alan has three additional books in progress: a novel, a memoir, and an urban social history book. He has won the 2010 Donald Grant Creighton Award for Best Biography from the Ontario Historical Society. Alan lives in Cobourg Ontario. He is a member of the Writers Union of Canada.

Alan D. Butcher's profile page

• Winner, Donald Grant Creighton Award