Morley Callaghan
Encyclopedia
Morley Callaghan, was a Canadian
novelist, short story writer, playwright, TV
and radio personality.
, the University of Toronto
and Osgoode Hall Law School
. He articled and was called to the Bar , but did not practice law. During the 1920s he worked at the Toronto Daily Star where he became friends with fellow reporter Ernest Hemingway
, formerly of The Kansas City Star
. Callaghan began writing stories that were well received and soon was recognized as one of the best short story writers of the day. In 1929 he spent some months in Paris, where he was part of the great gathering of writers in Montparnasse
that included Ernest Hemingway
, Ezra Pound
, Gertrude Stein
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
, and James Joyce
.
He recalled this time in his 1963 memoir
, That Summer in Paris. In the book, he discusses the infamous boxing
match between himself and Hemingway wherein Callaghan took up Hemingway's challenge to a bout. While in Paris, the pair had been regular sparring partners at the American Club of Paris. Being a better boxer, Callaghan knocked Hemingway to the mat. The blame was centred on referee F. Scott Fitzgerald's lack of attention on the stopwatch as he let the boxing round go past its regulation three minutes. An infuriated Hemingway was angry at Fitzgerald; Hemingway and Fitzgerald had an often caustic relationship and Hemingway was convinced that Fitzgerald let the round go longer than normal in order to see Hemingway humiliated by Callaghan.
Callaghan's novels and short stories are marked by undertones of Roman Catholicism, often focusing on individuals whose essential characteristic is a strong but often weakened sense of self. His first novel was Strange Fugitive (1928); a number of short stories, novellas and novels followed. Callaghan published little between 1937 and 1950 - an artistically dry period. However, during these years, many non-fiction articles were written in various periodicals such as New World (Toronto), and National Home Monthly. Luke Baldwin's Vow, a slim novel about a boy and his dog, was originally published in a 1947 edition of Saturday Evening Post and soon became a juvenile classic read in school rooms around the world. The Loved and the Lost (1951) won the Governor General's Award
. Callaghan's later works include, among others, The Many Colored Coat (1960), A Passion in Rome (1961), A Fine and Private Place (1975), A Time for Judas (1983), Our Lady of the Snows (1985). His last novel was A Wild Old Man Down the Road (1988). Publications of short stories have appeared in The Lost and Found Stories of Morley Callaghan (1985), and in The New Yorker Stories (2001). The four volume The Complete Stories (2003) collects for the first time 90 of his stories.
Callaghan was also a contributor to The New Yorker
, Harper's Bazaar
, Maclean's
, Esquire
, Cosmopolitan
, Saturday Evening Post, Yale Review
, New World
, Performing Arts in Canada, and Twentieth Century Literature.
Callaghan married Loretto Dee, with whom he had two sons: Michael (born November 1931) and Barry
(born 1937), a poet and author in his own right. Barry Callaghan's memoir Barrelhouse Kings (1998), examines his career and that of his father. After outliving most of his contemporaries, Callaghan died after a brief illness in Toronto at the age of 87. he was interred in Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery
in Ontario.
's Lorne Pierce Medal
in 1960. In 1982 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada
.
Morley Callaghan is the subject of a CBC Television
Life and Times episode, and the CBC mini-series, Hemingway Vs. Callaghan, which first aired in March 2003.
released a special commemorative series, "The Writers of Canada", with a design by Katalina Kovats, featuring two English-Canadian and two French-Canadian stamps. Three million stamps were issued. Callaghan was chosen for one of the English-Canadian stamps.
The Snob
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
novelist, short story writer, playwright, TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and radio personality.
Biography
Of Canadian/English-immigrant parentage, Callaghan was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. He was educated at Withrow PS, Riverdale Collegiate InstituteRiverdale Collegiate Institute
Riverdale Collegiate Institute is a high school located at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1907 and was at that time on the outskirts of the city. It was extensively renovated in the 1990s but the original facade was maintained. It is the academic school for lower east end Toronto.On...
, the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and Osgoode Hall Law School
Osgoode Hall Law School
Osgoode Hall Law School is a Canadian law school, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and affiliated with York University. Named after the first Chief Justice of Ontario, William Osgoode, the law school was established by The Law Society of Upper Canada in 1889 and was the only accredited law...
. He articled and was called to the Bar , but did not practice law. During the 1920s he worked at the Toronto Daily Star where he became friends with fellow reporter Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, formerly of The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star is a McClatchy newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes...
. Callaghan began writing stories that were well received and soon was recognized as one of the best short story writers of the day. In 1929 he spent some months in Paris, where he was part of the great gathering of writers in Montparnasse
Montparnasse
Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail...
that included Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
, and James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
.
He recalled this time in his 1963 memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
, That Summer in Paris. In the book, he discusses the infamous boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
match between himself and Hemingway wherein Callaghan took up Hemingway's challenge to a bout. While in Paris, the pair had been regular sparring partners at the American Club of Paris. Being a better boxer, Callaghan knocked Hemingway to the mat. The blame was centred on referee F. Scott Fitzgerald's lack of attention on the stopwatch as he let the boxing round go past its regulation three minutes. An infuriated Hemingway was angry at Fitzgerald; Hemingway and Fitzgerald had an often caustic relationship and Hemingway was convinced that Fitzgerald let the round go longer than normal in order to see Hemingway humiliated by Callaghan.
Callaghan's novels and short stories are marked by undertones of Roman Catholicism, often focusing on individuals whose essential characteristic is a strong but often weakened sense of self. His first novel was Strange Fugitive (1928); a number of short stories, novellas and novels followed. Callaghan published little between 1937 and 1950 - an artistically dry period. However, during these years, many non-fiction articles were written in various periodicals such as New World (Toronto), and National Home Monthly. Luke Baldwin's Vow, a slim novel about a boy and his dog, was originally published in a 1947 edition of Saturday Evening Post and soon became a juvenile classic read in school rooms around the world. The Loved and the Lost (1951) won the Governor General's Award
Governor General's Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields. The first was conceived in 1937 by Lord Tweedsmuir, a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction who created the Governor...
. Callaghan's later works include, among others, The Many Colored Coat (1960), A Passion in Rome (1961), A Fine and Private Place (1975), A Time for Judas (1983), Our Lady of the Snows (1985). His last novel was A Wild Old Man Down the Road (1988). Publications of short stories have appeared in The Lost and Found Stories of Morley Callaghan (1985), and in The New Yorker Stories (2001). The four volume The Complete Stories (2003) collects for the first time 90 of his stories.
Callaghan was also a contributor to The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
, Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
, Esquire
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
, Saturday Evening Post, Yale Review
Yale Review
The Yale Review is the self-proclaimed oldest literary quarterly in the United States. It is published by Yale University.It was founded originally in 1819 as The Christian Spectator. At its origin it was published to support Evangelicalism, but over time began to publish more on history and...
, New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
, Performing Arts in Canada, and Twentieth Century Literature.
Callaghan married Loretto Dee, with whom he had two sons: Michael (born November 1931) and Barry
Barry Callaghan
Barry Morley Joseph Callaghan is a Canadian author, poet and anthologist. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Exile Quarterly.Born in Toronto, Ontario, he is the son of late Canadian novelist and short story writer, Morley Callaghan...
(born 1937), a poet and author in his own right. Barry Callaghan's memoir Barrelhouse Kings (1998), examines his career and that of his father. After outliving most of his contemporaries, Callaghan died after a brief illness in Toronto at the age of 87. he was interred in Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery
Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery
Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery at 305 Erskine Avenue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada was consecrated on July 9, 1898 by Roman Catholic Archbishop John Walsh. The first burial occurred on March 27, 1900. By the end of the 20th Century, the cemetery was full, holding the remains of more than 76,000 persons...
in Ontario.
Recognition
Callaghan was awarded the Royal Society of CanadaRoyal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
's Lorne Pierce Medal
Lorne Pierce Medal
The Lorne Pierce Medal is awarded every two years by the Royal Society of Canada to recognize achievement of special significance and conspicuous merit in imaginative or critical literature written in either English or French...
in 1960. In 1982 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
.
Morley Callaghan is the subject of a CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
Life and Times episode, and the CBC mini-series, Hemingway Vs. Callaghan, which first aired in March 2003.
Commemorative Postage Stamp
On September 8, 2003, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Library of Canada, Canada PostCanada Post
Canada Post Corporation, known more simply as Canada Post , is the Canadian crown corporation which functions as the country's primary postal operator...
released a special commemorative series, "The Writers of Canada", with a design by Katalina Kovats, featuring two English-Canadian and two French-Canadian stamps. Three million stamps were issued. Callaghan was chosen for one of the English-Canadian stamps.
Novels
- Strange Fugitive - 1928
- It's Never Over - 1930
- A Broken Journey - 1932
- Such Is My BelovedSuch Is My BelovedSuch Is My Beloved is a novel by Canadian writer Morley Callaghan. It was first published in 1934 by Charles Scribner's Sons in New York and Macmillan of Canada in Toronto.-Plot:...
- 1934 - They Shall Inherit the Earth - 1935
- More Joy in HeavenMore Joy in HeavenMore Joy in Heaven is a novel written by Canadian author Morley Callaghan and published in 1937.The central figure, Kip Caley, was inspired by Norman Ryan , a criminal who had committed a number of robberies in Quebec, Ontario and the United States.Callaghan's friend Ernest Hemingway had also...
- 1937 - The Loved and the Lost - 1951
- The Many Colored Coat - 1960 (reissued as The Man with the Coat, 1988)
- A Passion in Rome - 1961
- A Fine and Private Place - 1975
- A Time for JudasA Time for JudasA Time for Judas is a novel by Canadian author Morley Callaghan, published by Macmillan of Canada in 1983. It tells the story of a man in modern times who discovers tablets written by a scribe named Philo of Crete or Philo the Greek. In the story, these tablets are from the time of Jesus and are...
- 1983 - Our Lady of the Snows - 1985 (based on his novella The Enchanted Pimp)
- A Wild Old Man on the Road - 1988
Novellas
- No Man's Meat - 1931
- Luke Baldwin's Vow - 1948 (reissued as The Vow, 2006)
- The Varsity Story - 1948
- An Autumn Penitent - 1973 (and In His Own Country)
- Close to the Sun Again - 1977
- No Man's Meat and The Enchanted Pimp - 1978
Short fiction
- A Native Argosy - 1929
- Now That April's Here and Other Stories - 1936
- Morley Callaghan's Stories - 1959
- Stories - 1967
- The Lost and Found Stories of Morley Callaghan - 1985
- The Morley Callaghan Reader - 1997
- The New Yorker Stories - 2001
- The Complete Stories (four volumes) - 2003
The Snob
- The SentimentalistsThe SentimentalistsThe Sentimentalists, also known as the "Clark Sisters" , were an American close harmony singing group, consisting of sisters Mary Clark, Peggy Clark Schwartz, Ann Clark, and Jean Clark...
Non-fiction
- That Summer in Paris: Memories of Tangled Friendships with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Some Others - 1963
- Winter - 1974
Plays
- Turn Again Home (based on the novel They Shall Inherit the Earth, produced in New York City in 1940, and produced under title Going Home in Toronto in 1950)
- Just Ask George (produced in Toronto, 1940)
- To Tell the Truth (produced in Toronto, 1949)
- Season of the Witch - 1976
Books
- Boire, Gary A., Morley Callaghan and His Works - 1990
- Boire, Gary A., Morley Callaghan: Literary Anarchist - 1994
- Cameron, Donald, Conversations with Canadian Novelists, Part Two - 1973
- Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 3 - 1975
- Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 14 - 1980
- Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 41 - 1987
- Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 65 - 1991
- Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 68: Canadian Writers, 1920–1959, First Series - 1988
- Morley, Patricia, Morley Callaghan - 1978
- Orange, John, Orpheus in Winter: Morley Callaghan's The Loved and the Lost - 1993
- Sutherland, Fraser, The Style of Innocence - 1972
- Wilson, Edmund, O Canada - 1965
- Woodcock, George, Moral Predicament: Morley Callaghan's More Joy in Heaven - 1993
Periodicals
- Books in Canada, April, 1986, pp. 32–33.
- Canadian Forum, March, 1960; February, 1968.
- Canadian Literature, summer, 1964
- Canadian Literature, winter, 1984, pp. 66–69.
- Canadian Literature, autumn, 1990, pp. 148–49.
- Dalhousie Review, autumn, 1959.
- Essays on Canadian Writing, winter, 1984–85, pp. 309– 15
- Essays on Canadian Writing, summer, 1990, pp. 16–20.
- Form and Century, April, 1934.
- New Republic, February 9, 1963.
- New Yorker, November 26, 1960.
- Queen's Quarterly, autumn, 1957
- Queen's Quarterly, autumn, 1989, pp. 717–19.
- Saturday Night, October, 1983, pp. 73–74.
- Tamarack Review, winter, 1962.
- American Spectator, February, 1991.