Award-winning author Richard B. Wright dies
Award-winning Canadian author Richard B. Wright has died at the age of 79.
His death was confirmed on Wednesday by his literary agent, Dean Cooke.
The St. Catharines, Ont.-based author won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a Governor General’s Literary Award for his 2001 novel “Clara Callan.”
Wright juggled his writing along with teaching duties at Ridley College in St. Catharines.
Just last year he published the Quebec City-set novel “Nightfall.”
In 2008, he made the long list for the Giller and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for “October.”
His other novels include “Mr. Shakespeare’s Bastard” and “The Age of Longing.”
“October” 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. The character was revived in “Nightfall,” which picks up after the death of his daughter.
“The ending of life and the passing of time have always been preoccupations of mine,” he said in a 2007 interview with The Canadian Press.
“I 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.”
He is survived by his sons Christopher and Andrew, and grandchildren Gage, Millie, Sydney, Abbey and Nathan.
A look at the books published by Wright: • Andrew Tolliver (1965) • The Weekend Man (1970) • In the Middle of a Life (1973) • Farthing’s Fortunes (1976) • Final Things (1980) • The Teacher’s Daughter (1982) • Tourists (1984) • One John A. Too Many (1984) (a republished version of “Andrew Tolliver” under a new name) • Sunset Manor (1990) • The Age of Longing (1995) • Clara Callan (2001) • Adultery (2004) • October (2007) • Mr. Shakespeare’s Bastard (2010)
• A Life With Words: A Writer’s Memoir (2015)
• Nightfall (2016)