Alice Munro - Writing Her Lives

told her (the “next-book option never really holds up”). But the key for herwas whether Audrey Coffin was moving to the new firm: “She is such a great person & editor.” As it turned out, Coffin kept her job, so Munro sent the manuscript, then called
Real Life
, along to her. Concluding her letter to Toppings, Munro wrote, “Anyway, I have the most awful misgivings about the thing now. (I think I’ll write Audrey a long letter about those & not bore you).” As her letters to Coffin about
Real Life
show, Munro’s misgivings were doubtless as much about her manuscript as they were about the politics of the Ryerson sale. As someone who knew about selling books in Canada, she certainly shared the widespread dismay. But as she makes clear in her first letter to Toppings, Munro also knew that the change at Ryerson might affect the firm’s attitude toward her kind of writing.
    Munro’s decision to send
Real Life
once she knew her editor was staying is indicative. Coffin’s presence was key: it reveals both Munro’s loyalty to someone she knows and feels comfortable with and, at the same time, suggests her need for such an editor as she shapes her writing for publication. While not a great deal of information is available about Coffin, it is clear that she and Munro were kindred spirits. Although she worked with other writers, Coffin once commented in a 1970 letter to Toppings that “my favourite reading is autobiography when done by the right person. Especially about his childhood – almost anyone who can write at all can do something exciting I believe. (Everyone has a romantic love for himself as a child?).” Given such preferences, Audrey Coffin was just the editor to receive Munro’s manuscript,
Real Life
, in December 1970. 37
    By the time she did so, Munro’s career was entering a new phase. Along with Atwood, she recalls the 1960s and 1970s as a period when writers in Canada supported one another freely, seeing common progress in an individual’s success. In early 1969, Munro had herself been the recipient of such support from Margaret Laurence, her friend from Vancouver who had emerged during the 1960s as one of the leading Canadian novelists. Laurence was well known for calling writers a tribe. When
Dance of the Happy Shades
was published, Audrey Coffin sent Laurence a copy and, acknowledging it, she asked if Coffin had arranged American or English publication. If not,Laurence volunteered to try to do so, though she did wonder if she was being presumptuous.
    Coffin must have encouraged her, for in February 1969, just as
The Fire-Dwellers
was in press, Laurence wrote to Judith Jones, her editor at Alfred A. Knopf in New York. After dealing with her own business, Laurence mentions Munro’s
Dance
, writing, “These stories seem so very good to me that I wonder if I might send you a copy?” The Canadian publisher, “it appears, [has] done nothing about submitting the book to any American publisher. Mrs. Munro does not have an agent, either.” Jones immediately wrote away for a reading copy and inquired about American rights to the book. Very much liking what she found in
Dance
, Jones arranged its consideration by Knopf. However, the book was turned down since Munro’s work was not known. There was the usual problem of selling collections of short stories by unknown writers and, besides, in Laurence, Knopf already had one woman writer from Canada. One was enough, apparently.
    This brief episode suggests the underlying factors affecting Munro’s career just after
Dance
was published: her stature as a writer in Canada was growing, owing to the quality of her work more than to her Governor General’s Award; other writers were noticing and were making encouraging connections she had not much previously experienced, extending her reputation; and, as the episode of Knopf’s consideration of
Dance
demonstrated, Munro faced real difficulties in taking the next step. Securing publication in the United States, despite the enthusiasm of an editor at a major publishing house, was not an easy thing. While Knopf eventually did publish Munro in 1979, that did not occur until her way had been prepared by McGraw-Hill, by the
New Yorker
, and especially by her agent, Virginia Barber. As she sent
Real Life
to Audrey Coffin at, now, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Alice Munro was beginning another phase of her career. No longer Canada’s “least-praised good writer,” as Robert Fulford described her as the 1960s