Alice Munro - Writing Her Lives

self-guided “Alice Munro Tour” of Wingham available at the North Huron District Museum. In 2002, the Alice Munro Literary Garden was dedicated beside that museum. 7
    In keeping with such recognition of stature, in early 1995 work began on a volume of
Selected Stories
. The desirability of such a book had been growing for some time and was, as well, indicative of Munro’s differing levels of reputation in Canada, the United States, and GreatBritain. Barber had been approached with the same idea in 1984 by Penguin Canada but, passing it along to Munro, commented that she expected Knopf would think it too soon. They apparently did. But by March 1995 the idea was being pressed from outside Canada. Writing to Gibson then, Barber reported to him on Munro’s trip to London to receive the W.H. Smith Award and went on to tell him that she had received an offer for the
Selected Stories
from Knopf and so was “ready to go ahead in Canada.” Given Munro’s publishing history in Canada, she and Barber needed to get permission to reprint – and so pay fees for – stories originally published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson and by Macmillan, so a selected volume was a bit more complicated there.
    At the same time and also because of Munro’s longer history, the selected volume that Barber, Close, and Alison Samuel, the British editor at Chatto & Windus, were working toward was not exactly suited to the Canadian market. While it was certainly of great appeal to Gibson as a trade book, he knew it might not yield the paperback version of Munro’s stories he and his house wanted. Since he joined McClelland & Stewart Gibson had wanted to see a selected Munro in its New Canadian Library paperback series aimed at high school and university classes. Once he had come to terms on the
Selected Stories
with Barber, Gibson wrote Munro, “What delights us especially here is that this book affords us the prospect of being able to bring it, in two volumes, into the New Canadian Library.” Although that was his hope, Munro’s reputation both at home and abroad – and so her most suitable form for paperback publication once the trade version of
Selected Stories
had run its course – dictated otherwise, and in due course the large trade paperback
Selected Stories
was published in Canada by Penguin. No selected Munro would join the New Canadian Library until 2003 when an entirely different selection, still large but not of the extent of
Selected Stories
, was published for Canada only under the title
No Love Lost
. This particular need in the Canadian market, a niche, is indicative of the
Selected Stories’
larger context: the need for a large selection of Munro’s stories was far greater in the United States and, perhaps especially, in Great Britain. These places had effectively missed Munro’s first book publication, so the reprise
Selected Stories
wouldappeal to readers who had discovered her work during the 1980s or early 1990s. Given Munro’s longer-running reputation in Canada, that need was less pressing at home.
    While Munro was willing to have a volume of stories selected, she was not especially keen on doing the selecting herself. After talking the matter over with her, Gibson wrote to Barber that “she has been convinced that it is a good idea but welcomes assistance in selecting the best stories.” He continued to express his willingness to help in the selection, and that of David Staines, general editor of the New Canadian Library. A list of thirty-one possible stories was drawn up at Chatto & Windus and, in early December 1995, everyone (Munro, her three editors plus Barber and Staines) had their say. Staines, writing to Gibson, argued in favour of including something from
Lives
so as to not give the impression that it is a novel and, in much the same fashion, he also argued against including all the title stories, since that would seem to lend to them an extra importance. The first argument was unsuccessful and the second only barely persuasive: “Who Do You Think You Are?” and “Open Secrets” were the last stories omitted, and then mostly for reasons of space. “The Beggar Maid” was included.
    While Munro had the final say, her participation in the decisions was limited. She left home in September for six months in Ireland – she planned to live in a cottage, Carrigrise, “on the edge of a village called Carrigadrohid, on the River Lee, in County Cork,” as she later wrote. The group did not want
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