Alice Munro - Writing Her Lives

of Canlit as a pyramid. Inverted. And kept upright by the power of subsidy,” it begins. Metcalf objected to fiction being praised because it is “about” Canada, and he argued that too much was being published without ever being read, as a result of subsidies to writer and publisher alike.
    Here and elsewhere, Metcalf attracted the ire of other writers. Responding to this article, W.P. Kinsella wrote, “Mr. Metcalf – an immigrant – continually and in the most galling manner has the temerity to preach to Canadians about their own literature.” Metcalf became a Canadian in 1970, so Kinsella’s attack on him here is gratuitous, nasty; he also called attention in particular to Metcalf’s special view of Munro:
    The majority of the authors he gushes over, and continually reprints in his seldom-read anthologies, are minor talents, rightfully neglected by Canadian readers. A major exception isAlice Munro who is, I believe, Canada’s finest writer, and who surely must be embarrassed to be included constantly in Mr. Metcalf’s incestuous little clique.
    However Kinsella viewed Metcalf’s opinions, for him Munro’s work set her apart from such spats. While certainly a political person and quite able to take stands on issues of concern, Munro had deliberately remained a sideline observer of the politics of “CanLit.” She saw the long-term utility of government subsidy for writers (and had accepted some herself, as Metcalf most certainly did); a few years later, Munro responded to another polemical piece by Metcalf, writing, “God knows you may be right about subsidizing but how otherwise could we have published anything? Ryerson Press, Tamarack, etc.” Even so, this debate was one that she avoided – she rose above it, as her material, talent, and accomplishment allowed her to do. 7
“Feeling My Own Powers”:
The Moons of Jupiter
through the
New Yorker
    For all his polemics, Metcalf was not blind to talent: “About some of our writers there is widespread agreement: Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje and, belatedly, Mavis Gallant.” His point, as Kinsella concedes regarding Munro, is that these writers had made excellent reputations based on achievement. While in 1983 it was certainly possible to question this as regards the others, by then there was no doubt about Munro. Evidence of this is not hard to find just before and after
The Moons of Jupiter
was published in 1982. “Working for a Living,” the memoir, after being rejected at the
New Yorker
was eventually bought (for $5,000) and published as the first piece in the first issue of
Grand Street
, a literary review just founded in New York. Besides Munro, contributors to that issue included Northrop Frye, Ted Hughes, W.S. Merwin, and Glenway Wescott. Edited by Ben Sonnenberg,
Grand Street
went on to publish three more Munro pieces, including “The Ferguson Girls Must Never Marry,” a story Munro has never included in a book and is still workingon. Two of the
New Yorker
stories, “Wood” and “Prue,” went immediately into Metcalf anthologies,
Best Canadian Stories
for 1981 and 1982. In Britain, Penguin published
The Beggar Maid
as a King Penguin text before publishing Munro’s earlier books in the same format. In November 1981 the first accession of Munro’s papers were formally received by the University of Calgary and, in March 1982, an academic conference on Munro and her work, where she spoke and saw a one-person production of “Forgiveness in Families,” was held at the University of St. Jerome’s College, University of Waterloo. Reviews and theses had given way to academic articles, and in 1983
Probable Fictions
, the first book devoted to Munro’s work, was published by ECW Press. Munro accepted some invitations during this time. After returning from China in 1981 she appeared in Toronto at Harbourfront International Festival of Authors in October, reading “The Moons of Jupiter.” Early in 1982 she and Fremlin were in Europe, visiting Norway for the February 16 launch of the Norwegian translation of
Who Do You Think You Are?, Tiggerpiken
, and travelling also to Denmark and Scotland, where she did public readings.
    Once he had re-established contact with Munro in Australia in September 1980, Gibson stayed in touch, enquiring each time he wrote about possibilities for the next book. Not surprisingly, given the attention Munro had received for
Who Do You Think You Are?
, other Canadian publishers were interested in wooing her away