Trent alumnus auther Richard B. Wright remembered as ‘astonishing observer’
Award-winning Canadian author Richard B. Wright, an alumnus of Trent University in Peterborough, was remembered Wednesday as “an astonishing observer of life” who deftly balanced the demands of his accomplished literary career with his much-loved role as an educator.
Wright died in hospital on Tuesday after sustaining a fall at home, according to his literary agent, Dean Cooke. He was 79.
He made a literary splash with the publication of his debut novel,
in 1970, recalled Wright’s editor, Phyllis Bruce of Simon & Schuster Canada.
“It was an astonishing international success coming out of Toronto at a time when many of our writers had started to go international,” said Bruce, who first teamed with Wright in the mid-1990s.
The St. Catharines, Ont.-based Wright also wrote the acclaimed 2001 novel which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction and the Trillium Book Award.
Set in the midst of the Great Depression, unfolds in diary- and letter-form chronicling the lives of two sisters — one a school teacher in small-town Ontario, the other a radio soap opera star in New York.
“He captured so perfectly women’s voices in that novel — not only the main character of Clara, but that of her sister,” Cooke said.
“The 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.”
Bruce said the writer’s “great insights into human nature” are reflected in all of his works.
“He 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.”
Iris Tupholme of HarperCollins Canada, who published Wright’s work for two decades, described him as “a generous and gracious person, a stylist and a person of great wisdom and empathy for his characters, particularly for women.”
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.
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.