Alice Munro - Writing Her Lives

riots, feminism, free love, marriage breakdown. Looking back to that time after she left Jim in the Rockland house where he still lives, Munro has commented, “The things Jim and I fought about were often class things, and totally different ways of looking at things. I was not prepared to be at all a submissive wife. I think now, why did I – the fights we had about the Vietnam War! I could have let that go, I wasn’t going to change his mind. But I was very much on the offensive. We didn’t see things thesame way.” By the time
Dance of the Happy Shades
was published in September 1968, Munro’s “long voyage” was well begun. 20

    Once Earle Toppings had secured the firm’s commitment to publish the stories, Ryerson Press had to assemble a manuscript and prepare it for publication. Toppings worked with Munro to add to what they had; once they had committed and the stories were arranged, Audrey Coffin was assigned to edit it. One of the new editors who was, as Toppings wrote, “joyously” enthusiastic about Munro’s stories, Coffin got the job because of her keenness. She became the first of Munro’s three important book editors. A contract was drawn up sometime in 1967 – Munro was to deliver the manuscript to Ryerson by June 6 – but it was not executed until June 1968. Even then there was no title indicated for the book. In the clause stating that no part of the work has been published before, Munro wrote, “All of these stories have appeared in magazines.”
    Although she may have hoped that would be the case for all the inclusions, it was not for two of them – “Walker Brothers Cowboy,” which opens the volume, and “Images,” its third story. When she was assigned to edit the book at Ryerson, Coffin wrote to Munro “saying that they needed new stories.… I remember writing back to her saying, you know, I’ve got a five-month-old baby, do you expect me to write three new stories? And she wrote back and said, yes.” Surprisingly, between the time Ryerson agreed to publish a collection and its publication, Munro wrote three new stories for the collection, “Postcard,” “Walker Brothers Cowboy,” and “Images.” She wrote them, in that order, during 1967 and into the fall and winter of that year. “I remember Andrea was pretty small, because I used to wash the diapers every day and I would put them in the dryer and that would heat up the work room. That big house was terrible to heat, and [when] Jim and I moved in there, we didn’t have any money.… That’s why I worked in the laundry room, because the dryer would heat and that was when I was doing a daily wash.” This laundry room, which seems to have entered legend as a symbol of Munro’s feminist struggle, is a large room on the second floor of the Rockland house. It has ample windows; there isnothing basement-dank about it. Carole Sabiston, also an artist and Jim’s second wife, has used it as a work room, too. 21
    Late in 1967, Earle Toppings left Ryerson for a freelance career, so Audrey Coffin became completely responsible within the house for Munro’s book. But though he had left the press, Coffin consulted him as it progressed – on all of its details, really. Thus while he may have been gone, Toppings was still quite involved. Early in the new year he wrote to Munro offering to show her new stories – “Postcard” and “Walker Brothers Cowboy” – to editors in Toronto, not as an agent but as an intermediary, leaving her to negotiate fees herself. He also wanted to write a radio play based on “Walker Brothers Cowboy,” and worked on it with Munro’s acquiescence, though nothing came of it.
    Toward the end of March, Munro sent Coffin “Images,” saying, “I don’t know if this will do. I intended typing a fair copy but find I must work the remainder of this week so I have just made a few corrections and send it as is.” She says she has another story started but intends to “open it up and just let it develop the way it wants to and, who knows? I may get the novel I want out of it.” Closing, Munro expresses her misgivings: “This story I’m sending may have been done too quickly & with too many distractions to have jelled properly but at least it’s something.” The next week, she sent Coffin some snapshots of herself (“They look a bit cheerful for a writer, that’s all”) and responds to Coffin’s questions as to the book’s title.
Walker Brothers Cowboy
and
Dance of the Happy