Margaret Atwood and Alden Nowlan at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 13 October 1967

CLASSIFICATION

Swallow ID:
1263
Partner Institution:
Concordia University
Source Collection Label:
SGWU Reading Series-Concordia University Department of English fonds
Series:
The Poetry Series
Sub Series:
SGWU Reading Series-Concordia University Department of English fonds

ITEM DESCRIPTION

Title:
Margaret Atwood and Alden Nowlan at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 13 October 1967
Title Source:
Cataloguer
Title Note:
"MARGARET ATWOOD & ALDEN NOWLAN Recorder October 13, 1967 3.75 ips on 1.mil tape, 1/2 track" written on sticker on the back of the tape's box. "ATWOOD & NOWLAN I006/SR36" written on sticker on the spine of the tape's box. "I006-11-036" also written on sticker on the reel.
Language:
English
Production Context:
Documentary recording
Genre:
Reading: Poetry
Persistent URL:
http://archives.concordia.ca/I086
Identifiers:
[]

Rights

CREATORS

Name:
Atwood, Margaret
Dates:
1939-
URL:
http://viaf.org/viaf/109322990
Role:
"Author", "Performer"
Notes:
Internationally acclaimed novelist, poet, critic and activist Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, November 18, 1939. She lived in Ottawa until 1946, when her family settled in Leaside, a suburb of Toronto. Atwood entered Victoria College, University of Toronto, graduating with honours in 1961. Her first published collection of short stories was Double Persephone (Hawkshead Press, 1961). By 1962 she had received her MA in English from Radcliffe College in the United States, working on further graduate work at Harvard University between 1962-3 and in 1965-7. Atwood published her second collection, The Circle Game (Anansi, 1966), which won the Governor General Award for Poetry. She wrote articles and reviews for Alphabet, Canadian Literature and Poetry among other publications, and poems for Kayak, Quarry and the Tamarack Review. Poems published in her book The Animals in That Country (Oxford University Press, 1968) won first prize in Canada’s 1967 Centennial Commission poetry competition. In 1970, she published three books, Procedures for Underground (Oxford University Press), Time, and The Journals of Susanna Moodie (Oxford University Press). Between 1971 and 1973, Atwood worked as an editor and on the board of directors for the House of Anansi press in Toronto, which in 1972 published Power Politics. Upon the discovery at Harvard that there was no published critical study of Canadian literature, she herself wrote and published Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (Anansi, 1971), which created a stir of controversy, but by 1982 it had sold more than 85,000 copies. Since 1973, she has lived with novelist and activist Graeme Gibson, producing one daughter, Eleanor Jess in 1967. Atwood taught and lectured at several Universities across Canada, the US and Australia, including University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) (1967-68) and at York University, Toronto. A selection of her publications include Surfacing (Simon & Schuster, 1972), You Are Happy (Harper &Row, 1974), Selected Poems (Oxford University Press) in 1976, Two-Headed Poems (Simon & Schuster, 1978), True Stories (Oxford University Press, 1981) and Second Words (Anansi, 1982). Her 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale (McClelland & Stewart) became one of her most popular and critically acclaimed works. In 1986 she was appointed the Berg Chair at New York University, as well as serving as writer-in-residence at several other Universities. She co-founded and served as chair to the Writer’s Union of Canada in 1982-3, and served as president of the Canadian Centre of International PEN from 1984-6. She has subsequently published dozens of books, including Cat’s Eye (McClelland & Stewart, 1988), The Robber Bride (Doubleday, 1993), Alias Grace (Nan A. Talese, 1996), The Blind Assassin (Nan A. Talese, 2000), Oryx and Crake (2003), The Penelopiad (Canongate, 2005) and The Tent (Bloomsbury, 2006). Along with many other publications of her critical essays, Curious Pursuits: Occasional Writing 1970-2005 (Verago) came out in 2005. Her most recent novel, Year of the Flood was published in 2009 by Doubleday Press. Her many prizes and honours include the Booker Prize, the E.J. Pratt Medal (1961), The Radcliffe Medal (1980), the Commonwealth Writers Prize (1992), and she is a Companion of the Order of Canada. Atwood continues to work as spokesperson on behalf of human rights and the environment.
Name:
Nowlan, Alden
Dates:
1933-1983
URL:
http://viaf.org/viaf/61671170
Role:
"Author", "Performer"
Notes:
Poet Alden Nowlan was born in 1933, in a small rural community near Windsor, Nova Scotia. Nowlan worked as a young man on farms, lumbermills and as a sawmill helper before he left Nova Scotia for New Brunswick to take a position as editor at The Heartland Observer and the night-news editor of the Saint John Telegraph-Journal. Nowlan published his first book of poetry, The rose and the puritan (New Brunswick University) in 1958, which was followed closely by A darkness in the earth (Hearse Press, 1959), Wind in a rocky country (Emblem Books, 1961), Under the ice (Ryerson Press, 1961) and The things which are (Contact Press,1962). In 1967 he was awarded the Governor General’s Award for his collection Bread, wine and salt (Clarke, Irwin). Nowlan was offered a writer-in-residence position at the University of New Brunswick, which he held until his death in 1983. His other publications include The mysterious naked man (Clarke, Irwin, 1969), Between tears and laughter (Clarke, Irwin, 1971), I’m a stranger here myself (Clarke, Irwin, 1974), Smoked glass (Clarke, Irwin, 1977) and I might not tell everybody this (Clarke, Irwin, 1982). Nowlan was also involved in theatre, and wrote three stage plays with Walter Learning: Frankenstein (Clarke, Irwin, 1976), The incredible murder of Cardinal Tosca (Learning Productions, 1978) and The dollar woman (Borealis Press, 1981). Nowlan was awarded a Doctor of Letters from the University of New Brunswick, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Nowlan has also published an autobiography, Various persons named Kevin O’Brien (Clarke, Irwin, 1973), a collection of short stories, Miracle at Indian River (Clarke, Irwin, 1968), a travel book Campobello, the outer island (Clarke, Irwin, 1975) and collected twenty-seven of his magazine articles in Double exposure (Brunswick Press, 1978). Numerous titles were published posthumously, including Alden Nowlan, early poems (Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1983), The best of Alden Nowlan (Lancelot Press, 1993), Will ye let the mummers in? (Clarke, Irwin, 1984), An exchange of gifts: poems new and selected (Irwin, 1985), Alden Nowlan: selected poems (Irwin, 1985).

CONTRIBUTORS

Name:
Kiyooka, Roy
Dates:
1926-1994
URL:
http://viaf.org/viaf/30784426
Role:
"Series organizer", "Presenter"

MATERIAL DESCRIPTION

AV Type:
Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Reel to Reel
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Extent:
1/4 inch
Playing Speed:
3 3/4 ips
Track Configuration:
Half-track
Playback Mode:
Mono
Tape Brand:
Scotch
Sound Quality:
Good

DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION

File URL:
https://files.spokenweb.ca/concordia/sgw/audio/all_mp3/margaret_atwood_alden_nowlan_i006-11-036.mp3
Show Content
File Path:
files.spokenweb.ca>concordia>sgw>audio>all_mp3
Duration:
01:01:39
Size:
148 MB
Content:
Margaret Atwood 00:00:00 I should apologize to begin with for my voice. I don't usually sound quite this much like Tallulah Bankhead . I have the Montreal plague. The first poem is called "This is a Photograph of Me," and it's the first poem in The Circle Game . Margaret Atwood 00:00:22 Reads "This is a Photograph of Me" from The Circle Game. Margaret Atwood 00:01:35 The next poem is called "Camera," and is dedicated to somebody I knew who liked to take pictures. Margaret Atwood 00:01:44 Reads "Camera" [from The Circle Game]. Margaret Atwood 00:03:24 And a small poem called "Carved Animals". Margaret Atwood 00:03:28 Reads "Carved Animals" [from The Circle Game]. Margaret Atwood 00:04:25 Now some more recent poems, which I should explain were mostly written in the United States when I was living there recently. The first one called "At the Tourist centre in Boston". Now Canada does have a Tourist centre in Boston . Margaret Atwood 00:04:50 Reads "At the Tourist centre in Boston" [published later in The Animals in that Country ]. Margaret Atwood 00:06:48 And a poem called "The Green Man", which is dedicated to the Boston Strangler . Margaret Atwood 00:06:56 Reads "The Green Man". Margaret Atwood 00:08:03 This poem called "A Fortification". Margaret Atwood 00:08:08 Reads "A Fortification" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:09:17 And this is a poem dedicated to my landlady who didn't remain my landlady for very long, called "The Landlady". Margaret Atwood 00:09:29 Reads "The Landlady" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:10:47 And this poem called, "A Foundling". Margaret Atwood 00:10:52 Reads "A Foundling" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:11:41 And this poem, which has no title. Margaret Atwood 00:11:49 Reads ["Untitled"]. Margaret Atwood 00:12:58 And a poem called "Chronology", which I wrote in one of my more paranoid states of mind. Margaret Atwood 00:13:06 Reads "Chronology". Margaret Atwood 00:14:39 And here's my love poem to the, our large, friendly neighbour to the south. Margaret Atwood 00:14:50 Reads "Backdrop addresses cowboy" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:16:28 Then a slightly happier poem called "A Voice". Margaret Atwood 00:16:36 Reads "A Voice" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:17:40 And this one called, "An Elegy for the Giant Tortoises", which I wrote when I heard that they were planning to use a certain South Pacific island for the building of an airstrip. Margaret Atwood 00:17:59 Reads "An Elegy for the Giant Tortoises" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:19:19 And this poem called, "It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers". Margaret Atwood 00:19:26 Reads "It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:20:49 Reads "I was reading a scientific article" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:22:20 And the last poem. Margaret Atwood 00:22:25 Reads "The Reincarnation of Captain Cook" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:23:44 Thank you. Audience 00:23:46 Applause [cut off abruptly]. Unknown 00:23:49 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. Roy Kiyooka 00:23:58 ...for quite a number of years as a journalist in the Maritimes , and this evening he is here with his wife and son and will be reading to you. Ladies and gentlemen, Alden Nowlan . Audience 00:24:17 Applause. Alden Nowlan 00:24:26 Thank you, Roy . First of all, I want to reassure everyone that I'm not going to read everything that's in this. I feel that probably there are some who are terrified when they see this, you know. It's really basically laziness that I haven't shortened anything out, I simply have wads of things here. Audience 00:24:55 Laughter. Alden Nowlan 00:24:56 No no, not that one, I'm not going to read them all, definitely, definitely not. Unknown 00:25:09 Silence [pause]. Alden Nowlan 00:25:19 First of all I have a very, very bad poem that I can't resist reading. I realized that it's sort of a bad beginning to start off with a poem that the poet himself considers a very bad one, but I wrote this when I arrived here this afternoon. To the natural egotism of a poet, you see, I can't resist offering it to this sort of captive audience here. [Audience laughter]. "Poem for the Ritz Carlton". [Audience laughter]. Alden Nowlan 00:26:06 Reads "Poem for the Ritz Carlton" [audience laughter throughout]. Alden Nowlan 00:26:30 That isn't really as critical of the Ritz Carlton as it sounds, because I sort of like the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral , too, you see. [Audience laughter]. Next, I'd like to read some poems from my new book, Bread Wine and Salt, which is going to be published by Carter when, the first week in November, at three dollars and fifty cents. [Audience laughter]. That is the commercial. "I, Icarus". Alden Nowlan 00:27:15 Reads "I, Icarus" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:28:34 Reads "Sailors" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:30:06 This poem is entitled "The Cinnamon Bears", which sounds at first as if it were some sort of an animal cooking. But actually, what these cinnamon bears were, was back around the turn of the century in New Brunswick , as I've been told, there were all sorts of touring side-show type of things, you know, that, fortune tellers, and...people with a monkey, organ grinders with a monkey, and all this type of, sort of strolling pyres or wandering minstrels that existed up until the advent of radio and television. And it was a terrific thing, of course, in these backwoods communities. No doubt throughout Canada and the United States, when one of these people arrived. And among the, among these people were men who had trained bears, who, because of their colouration, were called cinnamon bears. And this poem actually is sort of a found poem, because it's not so much a creative thing as it is the transcription of a conversation which I happened to overhear between an old couple in northern New Brunswick. A man and his wife in their seventies, when they, suddenly something brought back these memories of these days of the organ grinders and the cinnamon bears. And as I say, I sort of made the poem more or less by simply transcribing the things which they said to one another, which it seemed to me was sort of a poetry, a form of poetry itself. Alden Nowlan 00:32:20 Reads "The Cinnamon Bears" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:33:21 Reads "Britain Street, St. John, New Brunswick” [published as “Britain Street” in Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:34:22 This is another, sort of a found poem, I'm not really terribly convinced that it's a poem at all. Last year, when I had a quite serious illness, one afternoon I was in the waiting room at the doctor's office, and the only thing that seemed to lay at hand for me to read was a copy of one of these Confessions magazines entitled Secret Life. [Audience laughter]. And as I glanced through it, it seemed to me, all that I actually read of it, you know, were these sort of captions at the top of the articles, and some of the big type in it. But it seemed to me really, as I glanced through it, that it had, that it contained sort of a crazy poetry of its own. At least, in the mood that I was in at the time, I sort of responded to it as though it were a crazy sort of poetry. And so as I sat there I sort of jotted down some of these things from the magazine, and ever since I've been trying to pass it off as a poem. Alden Nowlan 00:35:37 Reads "Secret Life" [from Bread, Wine and Salt; audience laughter throughout]. Audience 00:36:39 Laughter. Alden Nowlan 00:36:57 Reads "In Our Time" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:40:51 Reads "The Changeling" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:41:49 Reads "The Hollow Men" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:42:38 This poem is entitled "Ancestral Memories Evoked by Attending the Opening of the Playhouse in Fredericton , New Brunswick". And I'm a little afraid that many of you will feel that it is sort of pointless. I'm not sure really but what you'd have to be completely immersed in the atmosphere of New Brunswick to get the real point of it, but. But that said, not implying any superiority on the part of New Brunswickers, unfortunately. Anyway. Alden Nowlan 00:43:26 Reads "Ancestral Memories Evoked by Attending the Opening of the Playhouse in Fredericton, New Brunswick" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:44:36 Reads "Every Man Owes God a Death" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:46:41 This poem, for no particular reason, is entitled "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner". Alden Nowlan 00:46:48 Reads "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:48:23 This is a poem that came out of a serious illness that I had last year, and it's entitled "In the Operating Room". Alden Nowlan 00:48:38 Reads "In the Operating Room" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:50:05 I have a few other recent poems I'll dig out of these. Unknown 00:50:12 Ambient Sound [pause; Nowlan turning pages]. Alden Nowlan 00:50:47 As I sort through these, I'm silently cursing myself for not having done this before I came here. Unknown 00:50:52 Ambient Sound [pause; Nowlan turning pages]. Alden Nowlan 00:51:20 Here's a fairly recent poem which isn't a political poem at all, but a human poem. And one that I wrote as a result of watching on television the debates in the United Nations on the Middle East crisis. And one of the horrible things I felt as I watched it was how completely dehumanized it all was, that the real, human issues had been lost sight of, and sort of drowned in an ocean of resolutions and memos from embassies and all this sort of things. And one night when they televised these sessions through until about four o'clock, the ambassador of Saudi Arabia spoke, and he delivered certainly a very bigoted speech, and one that as a speech I wouldn't have agreed with, but I felt an admiration for him, because it had seemed to me that he was the only really human thing that had happened there all day. You know, that certainly he was a bigoted old man, full of thousands of years of hatred, but it was a human hatred, expressed in a human manner, something that the rest of them had completely lost sight of. And as a result of this feeling I wrote this poem, "For Jamil Baroody , Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Nations on the Occasion of his Address to the Security Council, June 1967". Alden Nowlan 00:53:21 Reads "For Jamil Baroody, Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Nations on the Occasion of his Address to the Security Council, June 1967". Alden Nowlan 00:56:26 Reads "Fireworks". Alden Nowlan 00:57:34 Reads "Two Poems for the Nova Scotia Department of Highways". Alden Nowlan 00:59:31 Finally, this is a poem entitled "State Visit", and the motivation of it, like one of the earlier ones I read, was sort of this same feeling of frustration at the complete dehumanization of politics as we feel it today, and particularly, this sort of apotheosis of world leaders into some sort of a symbol, so they even, I think, begin to think of themselves in these sort of abstract terms, rather than as a human being. And out of--this is sort of, I suppose, perhaps to a degree sort of a bitter little poem, but it stemmed from an emotion which I'm sure many of us feel. Alden Nowlan 01:00:27 Reads "State Visit". END 01:01:39 [Cut off abruptly].
Notes:
Margaret Atwood reads from The Circle Game (House of Anansi, 1966) as well as poems later published in The Animals in that Country (Oxford University Press, 1968). Nowlan reads from Bread Wine and Salt (Clarke, Irwin & Company, 1967) along with some poems from unknown sources. 00:00- Atwood introduces “This is a Photograph of Me”. [INDEX: Montreal plague, Tallula Bankhead, The Circle Game; from The Circle Game.] 00:22- Reads “This is a Photograph of Me”. 01:35- Introduces “The Camera”. [INDEX: dedication; published as “Camera” in The Circle Game] 01:44- Reads “Camera”. 03:28- Reads “Carved Animals”. [INDEX: from The Circle Game, part III of “Some Objects of Wood and Stone”.] 04:25- Introduces “At the tourist center in Boston”. [INDEX: recent poems, written in the United States, Canada’s Tourist Center in Boston; from The Animals in that Country.] 04:50- Reads “At the tourist centre in Boston”. 06:48- Introduces “The Green Man” [INDEX: dedicated to the Boston Strangler; from unknown source.] 06:56- Reads “The Green Man”. 08:03- Reads “A fortification”. [INDEX: from The Animals in that Country] 09:17- Introduces “The landlady”. [INDEX: dedicated to Atwood’s landlady; from The Animals in that Country.] 09:29- Reads “The landlady”. 10:47- Reads “A foundling”. [INDEX: from The Animals in that Country.] 11:41- Reads “Untitled”. 12:58- Introduces “Chronology”. [INDEX: written in a paranoid state of mind; from unknown source.] 13:06- Reads “Chronology”. 14:39- Introduces “Backdrop addresses cowboy”. [INDEX: U.S.A.] 14:50- Reads “Backdrop addresses cowboy”. [INDEX: from The Animals in that Country.] 16:36- Reads “A voice”. [INDEX: from The Animals in that Country.] 17:40- Introduces “Elegy for giant tortoises”. [INDEX: South Pacific Island as airstrip; from The Animals in that Country.] 17:59- Reads “Elegy for giant tortoises”. 19:19- Reads “It’s dangerous to read newspapers”. [INDEX: from The Animals in that Country.] 20:49- Reads “I was reading a scientific article”. [INDEX: from The Animals in that Country.] 22:25- Reads “The reincarnation of Captain Cook”. [INDEX: from The Animals in that Country.] 23:44- End of Atwood’s Reading. 23:49- CUT in recording. 23:58- Roy Kiyooka introduces Alden Nowlan (recording starts mid-introduction). [INDEX: Journalist from the Maritimes, with wife and son.] 24:26- Alden Nowlan introduces the reading. [INDEX: shortened poems, poems for reading.] 25:19- Introduces “Poem for the Rich Carlton”. [INDEX: bad poem, written upon arrival in Montreal, egotism of poet, audience.] 26:06- Reads “Poem for the Rich Carlton”. 26:30- Explains “Poem for the Rich Carlton”. [INDEX: crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral.] 26:43- Introduces “I, Icarus”. [INDEX: from new book, Bread Wine and Salt, published by Carter at $3.50.] 27:15- Reads “I, Icarus”. 28:34- Reads “Sailors” [INDEX: from Bread, Wine and Salt.] 30:06- Introduces “The Cinnamon Bears”. [INDEX: animal cooking, turn of the century, New Brunswick, touring side-show, fortune tellers, monkey, organ grinders, strolling pyres, wandering minstrels, advent of radio and television, Canada, United States, trained bears, found poem, creative, transcription of a conversation, northern New Brunswick, form of poetry; from Bread, Wine and Salt.] 32:30- Reads “The Cinnamon Bears”. 33:21- Reads “Britain Street, St. John, New Brunswick”. [INDEX: published as “Britain Street” in Bread, Wine and Salt.] 34:22- Introduces “The Secret Life”. [INDEX: found poem, maybe not a poem, serious illness, doctor’s office, Confessions magazines called Sacred Life, crazy poetry; from Bread, Wine and Salt.] 35:37- Reads “Secret Life”. 36:57- Reads “In Our Time” [INDEX: from Bread, Wine and Salt.] 40:51- Reads “The Changeling” [INDEX: from Bread, Wine and Salt.] 41:49- Reads “The Hollow Men”. [INDEX: from Bread, Wine and Salt.] 42:38- Introduces "Ancestral Memories Evoked by Attending the Opening of the Playhouse in Fredericton, New Brunswick." [INDEX: atmosphere of New Brunswick; from Bread, Wine and Salt.].] 43:26- Reads "Ancestral Memories Evoked by Attending the Opening of the Playhouse in Fredericton, New Brunswick." 44:36- Reads “Every Man Owes God a Death”. [INDEX: from Bread, Wine and Salt.] 46:41- Introduces “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner”. [INDEX: title, from Bread, Wine and Salt.] 46:48- Reads “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner”. 48:23- Introduces “In the Operating Room”. [INDEX: serious illness the previous year, from Bread, Wine and Salt.].] 48:38- Reads “In the Operating Room”. 51:20- Introduces “For Jamol Barudi, Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Nations on the Occasion of his Address to the Security Council, June 1967”. [INDEX: political poem, human poem, television debates, United Nations, Middle East Crisis, dehumanization, bigoted speech.] 53:21- Reads “For Jamol Barudi, Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Nations on the Occasion of his Address to the Security Council, June 1967”. 56:26- Reads “Fireworks”. 57:34- Reads “Two Poems for the Nova Scotia Department of Highways”. 59:31- Introduces “State Visit”. [INDEX: dehumanization of politics, apotheosis of world leaders into a symbol, abstract terms, emotion.] 1:00:27- Reads “State Visit”. 1:01:27- RECORDING ENDS (suddenly).
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Featured:
Yes
Content Type:
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File URL:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-0cAe1GF8xZsc62jpUDXwgvyCd6ZmvSw
Show Content
Title:
Atwood and Nowlan Tape Box - Back
Credit:
Drew Bernet
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File URL:
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Title:
Atwood and Nowlan Tape Box - Front
Credit:
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Content Type:
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File URL:
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Atwood and Nowlan Tape Box - Spine
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Title:
Atwood and Nowlan Tape Box - Reel
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
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Dates

Date:
1967 10 13
Type:
Performance Date
Source:
Accompanying Material
Notes:
Date written on sticker on the back of the tape's box

LOCATION

Address:
1455, Boul de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Venue:
Hall Building Basement Theatre
Latitude:
45.4972758
Longitude:
-73.57893043
URL:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/22080570
Notes:
Location specified in printed announcement "Georgantics" (Supplemental material)

CONTENT

Contents:
margaret_atwood_alden_nowlan_i006-11-036.mp3 Margaret Atwood 00:00:00 I should apologize to begin with for my voice. I don't usually sound quite this much like Tallulah Bankhead . I have the Montreal plague. The first poem is called "This is a Photograph of Me," and it's the first poem in The Circle Game . Margaret Atwood 00:00:22 Reads "This is a Photograph of Me" from The Circle Game. Margaret Atwood 00:01:35 The next poem is called "Camera," and is dedicated to somebody I knew who liked to take pictures. Margaret Atwood 00:01:44 Reads "Camera" [from The Circle Game]. Margaret Atwood 00:03:24 And a small poem called "Carved Animals". Margaret Atwood 00:03:28 Reads "Carved Animals" [from The Circle Game]. Margaret Atwood 00:04:25 Now some more recent poems, which I should explain were mostly written in the United States when I was living there recently. The first one called "At the Tourist centre in Boston". Now Canada does have a Tourist centre in Boston . Margaret Atwood 00:04:50 Reads "At the Tourist centre in Boston" [published later in The Animals in that Country ]. Margaret Atwood 00:06:48 And a poem called "The Green Man", which is dedicated to the Boston Strangler . Margaret Atwood 00:06:56 Reads "The Green Man". Margaret Atwood 00:08:03 This poem called "A Fortification". Margaret Atwood 00:08:08 Reads "A Fortification" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:09:17 And this is a poem dedicated to my landlady who didn't remain my landlady for very long, called "The Landlady". Margaret Atwood 00:09:29 Reads "The Landlady" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:10:47 And this poem called, "A Foundling". Margaret Atwood 00:10:52 Reads "A Foundling" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:11:41 And this poem, which has no title. Margaret Atwood 00:11:49 Reads ["Untitled"]. Margaret Atwood 00:12:58 And a poem called "Chronology", which I wrote in one of my more paranoid states of mind. Margaret Atwood 00:13:06 Reads "Chronology". Margaret Atwood 00:14:39 And here's my love poem to the, our large, friendly neighbour to the south. Margaret Atwood 00:14:50 Reads "Backdrop addresses cowboy" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:16:28 Then a slightly happier poem called "A Voice". Margaret Atwood 00:16:36 Reads "A Voice" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:17:40 And this one called, "An Elegy for the Giant Tortoises", which I wrote when I heard that they were planning to use a certain South Pacific island for the building of an airstrip. Margaret Atwood 00:17:59 Reads "An Elegy for the Giant Tortoises" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:19:19 And this poem called, "It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers". Margaret Atwood 00:19:26 Reads "It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:20:49 Reads "I was reading a scientific article" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:22:20 And the last poem. Margaret Atwood 00:22:25 Reads "The Reincarnation of Captain Cook" [published later in The Animals in that Country]. Margaret Atwood 00:23:44 Thank you. Audience 00:23:46 Applause [cut off abruptly]. Unknown 00:23:49 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. Roy Kiyooka 00:23:58 ...for quite a number of years as a journalist in the Maritimes , and this evening he is here with his wife and son and will be reading to you. Ladies and gentlemen, Alden Nowlan . Audience 00:24:17 Applause. Alden Nowlan 00:24:26 Thank you, Roy . First of all, I want to reassure everyone that I'm not going to read everything that's in this. I feel that probably there are some who are terrified when they see this, you know. It's really basically laziness that I haven't shortened anything out, I simply have wads of things here. Audience 00:24:55 Laughter. Alden Nowlan 00:24:56 No no, not that one, I'm not going to read them all, definitely, definitely not. Unknown 00:25:09 Silence [pause]. Alden Nowlan 00:25:19 First of all I have a very, very bad poem that I can't resist reading. I realized that it's sort of a bad beginning to start off with a poem that the poet himself considers a very bad one, but I wrote this when I arrived here this afternoon. To the natural egotism of a poet, you see, I can't resist offering it to this sort of captive audience here. [Audience laughter]. "Poem for the Ritz Carlton". [Audience laughter]. Alden Nowlan 00:26:06 Reads "Poem for the Ritz Carlton" [audience laughter throughout]. Alden Nowlan 00:26:30 That isn't really as critical of the Ritz Carlton as it sounds, because I sort of like the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral , too, you see. [Audience laughter]. Next, I'd like to read some poems from my new book, Bread Wine and Salt, which is going to be published by Carter when, the first week in November, at three dollars and fifty cents. [Audience laughter]. That is the commercial. "I, Icarus". Alden Nowlan 00:27:15 Reads "I, Icarus" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:28:34 Reads "Sailors" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:30:06 This poem is entitled "The Cinnamon Bears", which sounds at first as if it were some sort of an animal cooking. But actually, what these cinnamon bears were, was back around the turn of the century in New Brunswick , as I've been told, there were all sorts of touring side-show type of things, you know, that, fortune tellers, and...people with a monkey, organ grinders with a monkey, and all this type of, sort of strolling pyres or wandering minstrels that existed up until the advent of radio and television. And it was a terrific thing, of course, in these backwoods communities. No doubt throughout Canada and the United States, when one of these people arrived. And among the, among these people were men who had trained bears, who, because of their colouration, were called cinnamon bears. And this poem actually is sort of a found poem, because it's not so much a creative thing as it is the transcription of a conversation which I happened to overhear between an old couple in northern New Brunswick. A man and his wife in their seventies, when they, suddenly something brought back these memories of these days of the organ grinders and the cinnamon bears. And as I say, I sort of made the poem more or less by simply transcribing the things which they said to one another, which it seemed to me was sort of a poetry, a form of poetry itself. Alden Nowlan 00:32:20 Reads "The Cinnamon Bears" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:33:21 Reads "Britain Street, St. John, New Brunswick” [published as “Britain Street” in Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:34:22 This is another, sort of a found poem, I'm not really terribly convinced that it's a poem at all. Last year, when I had a quite serious illness, one afternoon I was in the waiting room at the doctor's office, and the only thing that seemed to lay at hand for me to read was a copy of one of these Confessions magazines entitled Secret Life. [Audience laughter]. And as I glanced through it, it seemed to me, all that I actually read of it, you know, were these sort of captions at the top of the articles, and some of the big type in it. But it seemed to me really, as I glanced through it, that it had, that it contained sort of a crazy poetry of its own. At least, in the mood that I was in at the time, I sort of responded to it as though it were a crazy sort of poetry. And so as I sat there I sort of jotted down some of these things from the magazine, and ever since I've been trying to pass it off as a poem. Alden Nowlan 00:35:37 Reads "Secret Life" [from Bread, Wine and Salt; audience laughter throughout]. Audience 00:36:39 Laughter. Alden Nowlan 00:36:57 Reads "In Our Time" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:40:51 Reads "The Changeling" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:41:49 Reads "The Hollow Men" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:42:38 This poem is entitled "Ancestral Memories Evoked by Attending the Opening of the Playhouse in Fredericton , New Brunswick". And I'm a little afraid that many of you will feel that it is sort of pointless. I'm not sure really but what you'd have to be completely immersed in the atmosphere of New Brunswick to get the real point of it, but. But that said, not implying any superiority on the part of New Brunswickers, unfortunately. Anyway. Alden Nowlan 00:43:26 Reads "Ancestral Memories Evoked by Attending the Opening of the Playhouse in Fredericton, New Brunswick" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:44:36 Reads "Every Man Owes God a Death" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:46:41 This poem, for no particular reason, is entitled "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner". Alden Nowlan 00:46:48 Reads "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:48:23 This is a poem that came out of a serious illness that I had last year, and it's entitled "In the Operating Room". Alden Nowlan 00:48:38 Reads "In the Operating Room" [from Bread, Wine and Salt]. Alden Nowlan 00:50:05 I have a few other recent poems I'll dig out of these. Unknown 00:50:12 Ambient Sound [pause; Nowlan turning pages]. Alden Nowlan 00:50:47 As I sort through these, I'm silently cursing myself for not having done this before I came here. Unknown 00:50:52 Ambient Sound [pause; Nowlan turning pages]. Alden Nowlan 00:51:20 Here's a fairly recent poem which isn't a political poem at all, but a human poem. And one that I wrote as a result of watching on television the debates in the United Nations on the Middle East crisis. And one of the horrible things I felt as I watched it was how completely dehumanized it all was, that the real, human issues had been lost sight of, and sort of drowned in an ocean of resolutions and memos from embassies and all this sort of things. And one night when they televised these sessions through until about four o'clock, the ambassador of Saudi Arabia spoke, and he delivered certainly a very bigoted speech, and one that as a speech I wouldn't have agreed with, but I felt an admiration for him, because it had seemed to me that he was the only really human thing that had happened there all day. You know, that certainly he was a bigoted old man, full of thousands of years of hatred, but it was a human hatred, expressed in a human manner, something that the rest of them had completely lost sight of. And as a result of this feeling I wrote this poem, "For Jamil Baroody , Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Nations on the Occasion of his Address to the Security Council, June 1967". Alden Nowlan 00:53:21 Reads "For Jamil Baroody, Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Nations on the Occasion of his Address to the Security Council, June 1967". Alden Nowlan 00:56:26 Reads "Fireworks". Alden Nowlan 00:57:34 Reads "Two Poems for the Nova Scotia Department of Highways". Alden Nowlan 00:59:31 Finally, this is a poem entitled "State Visit", and the motivation of it, like one of the earlier ones I read, was sort of this same feeling of frustration at the complete dehumanization of politics as we feel it today, and particularly, this sort of apotheosis of world leaders into some sort of a symbol, so they even, I think, begin to think of themselves in these sort of abstract terms, rather than as a human being. And out of--this is sort of, I suppose, perhaps to a degree sort of a bitter little poem, but it stemmed from an emotion which I'm sure many of us feel. Alden Nowlan 01:00:27 Reads "State Visit". END 01:01:39 [Cut off abruptly].
Notes:
Margaret Atwood reads from The Circle Game (House of Anansi, 1966) as well as poems later published in The Animals in that Country (Oxford University Press, 1968). Alden Nowlan reads from Bread Wine and Salt (Clarke, Irwin & Company, 1967) along with some poems from unknown sources.

NOTES

Type:
General
Note:
Year-Specific Information: In 1967, Margaret Atwood had moved to Montreal and took a position at the Sir George Williams University English Department. She taught four courses, as well as working on The Animals in that Country, The Journals of Susanna Moodie, Procedures for Underground and finished The Edible Woman. In 1967, Nowlan was awarded the Governor General’s Award for Bread Wine and Salt which was published the same year. He was also offered a position as writer-in-residence at the University of New Brunswick during this time.
Type:
General
Note:
Local Connections: Atwood became an important award-winning poet and critic in Canada by the late 60‘s. Sir George Williams English Department hired Atwood in 1967 as an English lecturer, after she had graduated from Harvard. His direct connection to Sir George Williams is unknown, but Nowlan was one of the most popular and important Maritime poets of the sixties and seventies.
Type:
Preservation
Note:
Reel-to-reel tape>CD>digital file
Type:
Cataloguer
Note:
Original transcript, print catalogue, research, introduction and edits by Celyn Harding-Jones. Additional research and edits by Ali Barillaro

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