Alice Munro - Writing Her Lives

Munro’s marriage; the circumstances are quite different from Munro’s. 8

    By the time Munro returned to Victoria from Toronto during the fall of 1972, she knew that a final break was coming soon. Consequently, she worked hard over that winter on the material that became
Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You
. In addition to the writing itself, Munro had begun a three-year period when she actively sought to promote herself as a writer, seeking grants and university appointments. The attention and awards
Lives
was bringing her in 1972 aided this plan, for it was adding significantly to her reputation as a Canadian writer to watch. This was the only time in her life when Munro actively did this. As her marriage ended and she prepared to strike out on her own, Munro did not have much expectation that she would be able to support herself by her writing. Thus while she tried to live this life for a time, she did so as a means to her particular ends – leaving Jim, theirmarriage, and Victoria – without any enthusiasm over what was to be required of her as she did so. Although she had never supported herself, her determination to leave her marriage saw her trying a variety of ways to be financially independent.
    Sometime during the period of the breakup, Munro let Bob Weaver know what was happening, for on November 27 – either 1971 or 1972 is possible – he wrote a caring and very understanding letter to her in which he apologizes, saying, “I’m sorry I bothered you about the Canada Council when you were in a state,” and continues, “I wasn’t entirely surprised by your letter because I’ve sensed for a long time some kind of strain.” He goes on to offer some of his own personal history; his father died when he was very young and he was raised wholly by and around women, making him “sensitive to the way women feel.” Weaver commiserates and mentions some of his own family problems, adding, “It’s sometimes grimly cheering to know that other people are in a mess.” He ends, “I guess you know that I’m fond of you for yourself as well as because of your writing. Let me know if there’s anything I can ever do (we’ll try the Council again), and I hope things improve. Work is a great help, I find. Do I sound fatherly now?”
    Munro had tried a second time for a Canada Council grant just before
Dance of the Happy Shades
came together at Ryerson, again unsuccessfully. Apparently Weaver was prodding her here to try again. Probably in response to this letter, she applied once more over the winter of 1972–73. In February 1973 she was writing to Metcalf, thanking him for what he did for her toward the writer-in-residence appointment at New Brunswick, saying that it was all right that she had not got it, but that “I’ll probably get the grant.” Munro did receive a $7,500 Canada Council Senior Arts Grant in 1973 – the only time she has received such support – but when it came it was mostly needed for the income tax she owed that year, for she had earned over $10,000 in royalties from McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
    Munro’s writing career was becoming more demanding as the marriage was ending and, through its various connections, she was looking to move from Victoria. In April of 1973 she called Weaver and asked him about a furnished apartment in Toronto as well as questionsabout income tax. Writing with suggestions a few days later, Weaver also put Munro in touch with George Jonas, a CBC television producer who was then arranging a series of original plays by Canadian writers. Munro’s “How I Met My Husband,” one of the stories about to appear in
Something
and probably her most successful dramatized piece, was included. 9 Through Weaver as well, she had two of the stories forthcoming in
Something
broadcast on
Anthology
. In the fall of 1972 McGraw-Hill, New York, published
Lives of Girls and Women
in the United States and, based on its success, decided to bring out
Dance of the Happy Shades
there the next year. At the same time, Toivo Kiil at McGraw-Hill Ryerson was managing sales of Munro’s subsidiary rights, bringing out a Canadian paperback of
Dance
, and beginning to anticipate Munro’s next book. Her career was gaining a new level of momentum.
    Early in 1973 Munro and Metcalf began correspondence as members of the selection committee of the incipient Writers’ Union of Canada. As Metcalf wrote in a form letter intended to solicit members, an ad hoc group of writers met in Toronto in