Notes on a Writer’s Life

David Adams Richards

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ISBN: 9781990770272
ITEM: PC0368 Category: Tags: , ,

Notes on a Writer’s Life

A Memoir

  Author:   David Adams Richards    
  Publisher:  Pottersfield Press

Notes on a Writer’s Life is the author’s account of his more than fifty years as a writer. It chronicles his early childhood, his high school years of turmoil and rebellion, and his uneasy relationship with both publishers and academics. Throughout, Richards records his continuous investigation into human conflict, into the chasm between the seeking of power and the knowledge of love. The book also deliberates on his examination into the nature of violence, both overt and coercive, that he has considered in thirty-five books. Richards describes his travels to various parts of the world, his love of the sea, his love of Spain, and his fight against alcoholism. Crucially and poignantly, he recounts how for years his wife Peggy has been his greatest ally and supporter.

Notes on a Writer’s Life also includes his relationships with other writers — his respect for Alden Nowlan, Alistair MacLeod, P.K. Page, Joel Hines, and Patrick Lane, and his friendship with Ray Fraser among others. Here, too, are his views on writers like Orwell, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky.

Readers will learn of his determination to write against the odds, from the early books like The Coming of Winter, Blood Ties and Lives of Short Duration, to his later works, such as Mercy Among the Children, Crimes Against My Brother, and Darkness. Richards believes that suffering is inherent and so is joy. He reflects on the absolute necessity of reaching toward a spiritual life (if not a religious one) as well as his knowledge of war and revolutions, and how both swallow humanity’s greater need for justice and liberty.

According to Professor William Connor, “Judged by the quality, scope, volume and variety of his writing — his stubborn almost compulsive bravery (Richards) towers over the great majority of contemporary Canadian writers.”
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Details and Specs
ISBN associated with this title: 9781990770272
Item PC0368
PublisherPottersfield Press
PublisherPottersfield Press
Published on July 27 2023
Language ENG
Pages 186
Format Paperback
Dimensions8.5(in) x 5.5(in)
Shipping weight183(g)
Status ACTIVE TITLE
David Adams Richards
David Adams Richards is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, essayist, and poet, whose commitment to the Miramichi River valley and his province is reflected in his writing. Margo Wheaton is a New Brunswick-born poet now living in Halifax. She is the author of The Unlit Path Behind the House, which won the Canadian Authors' Association Award.

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