This article needs additional citations for verification .(May 2023) |
Eric McCormack | |
---|---|
Born | Eric Patrick McCormack 20 September 1938 Bellshill, Scotland |
Died | 9 May 2023 84) Kingston, Ontario, Canada | (aged
Nationality | Canadian |
Genre | Absurdist fiction, mystery fiction, Gothic |
Literary movement | Postmodernism |
Eric Patrick McCormack (20 September 1938 – 9 May 2023) was a Scottish-born Canadian author. He was known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction, gothic horror and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as Inspecting the Vaults (1987), The Paradise Motel (1989), The Mysterium (1992), First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1997) and The Dutch Wife (2002). [1] [2] [3]
McCormack was born in Bellshill, Scotland, [4] an impoverished industrial community located 32 kilometres outside Glasgow where his father worked in a steel mill. McCormack took a master's degree in English literature from the University of Glasgow, then taught at a high school in Muirkirk, Scotland, a mining town. In 1966, he went to the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he wrote his PhD on Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy , a text he frequently alludes to in his fiction.
In 1970 he took up a teaching post in the English Department of St. Jerome's University, [5] which was established in 1959 as St Jerome's College and has been federated with University of Waterloo since 1960. He has since retired from teaching there.
McCormack wrote short stories in addition to his academic work, and in the 1980s published them in small literary journals such as Prism International , Malahat Review and The New Quarterly . His first book, Inspecting the Vaults, released in 1987, is a collection of these stories. One short story in particular, "Sad Stories in Patagonia", which describes a family tragedy, formed the basis of his next book, The Paradise Motel, which was published in 1989, and is mentioned in most of the other books that follow.[ citation needed ]
McCormack died on 9 May 2023, at the age of 84. [6]
As an academic, McCormack's writings tend to be informed by the types of 17th century works that have been his academic focus, but they also encompass shadowy worlds of criminality, violence (often family violence), natural and human-invented tragedy, and magic realism. He also favours telling the adventures of an individual by describing his or her roots (and that of his forefathers), and then traveling with him through life and its adventures.
There are several recurring themes in McCormack's books. Besides the recurring theme of "Sad Tales of Patagonia" and its tale of murder and mutilation, McCormack's heroes tend to have an academic/bookish bent, been born in Scotland, and have settled in the same part of Canada that he did. They also travel extensively, often by ship, and meet eccentric fellow travelers who relate to them their life stories and interests. Many of these travelers come to tragic ends themselves.
McCormack's reappearing subjects are:
Characters often meet up in unusual circumstances years after they have parted. This is seen in short stories such as "Festival", as well as novels such as The Paradise Motel.
Generally, McCormack's heroes fail in their quests
The identity of individuals is often called into questions by the events of the book.
Inspecting the Vaults contains an introduction and 20 short stories. It was re-published in 1993 by Penguin in an edition that included the novel The Paradise Motel.
The Paradise Motel is about Ezra Stevenson, who hears the tale of family murder and mutilation recounted in "Sad Stories of Patagonia" from his grandfather, Ezra Stevenson. He makes it his life mission to find out what happened to the four survivors of the tragedy, and the book follows his quest in four sections, each named for one of the survivors.
The Mysterium is a "metafictional detective" or "anti-detective" story in the vein of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose . [7]
First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women takes its inspiration from The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women by Scottish Reformer John Knox, which was published in 1558. The book concerns the birth, life and travels of an orphan, who encounters a bookish sailor who shows him Knox's book, among others. It also concerns the woman that the protagonist meets in the course of his life before he finally settles in Camberloo in Canada, a fictional name for a town similar to Waterloo (Waterloo borders the town of Cambridge; "Camberloo" appears to be the amalgam of the two names).
The Dutch Wife concerns a man whose mother married two men who bore the same name. He embarks on a journey across the world to discover the truth behind this unusual situation. [8]
Cloud was McCormack's last novel, published in August 2014.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction. He was a leading ghost story writer of his time, central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories". Three of his best-known works are the locked-room mystery Uncle Silas, the lesbian vampire novella Carmilla, and the historical novel The House by the Churchyard.
Robert Charles Wilson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.
The winners of the 1997 Governor General's Literary Awards were announced on November 18 by Donna Scott, Chairman of the Canada Council for the Arts. Each winner received a cheque for $10,000.
The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women is a polemical work by the Scottish reformer John Knox, published in 1558. It attacks female monarchs, arguing that rule by women is contrary to the Bible.
Monstrous Regiment may refer to:
Sir Ian James Rankin is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.
Eric James McCormack is a Canadian American actor known for his roles as Will Truman in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, Grant MacLaren in Netflix's Travelers, and Dr. Daniel Pierce in the TNT crime drama Perception.
Donald Barthelme was an American short story writer and novelist known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, was managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston (1961–1962), co-founder of Fiction, and a professor at various universities. He also was one of the original founders of the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
Monstrous Regiment is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the 31st novel in his Discworld series. It takes its name from a 16th-century tract by John Knox opposing female rule, titled The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.
Andrew O'Hagan is a Scottish novelist and non-fiction author. Three of his novels have been nominated for the Booker Prize and he has won several awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Award.
Ronald Welch was the pseudonym of Welsh writer Ronald Oliver Felton TD, who wrote in English. He is best known for children's historical fiction. He won the 1956 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association for the year's best children's book by a British author, for Knight Crusader, the first in his so-called Carey Family series of novels.
Prabda Yoon is a Thai writer, novelist, filmmaker, artist, graphic designer, magazine editor, screenwriter, translator and media personality. His literary debut, Muang Moom Shak, a collection of five related stories about New York City, and the follow-up story collection, Kwam Na Ja Pen (Probability), both published in 2000, immediately turned him into "...the talk of the town..." In 2002, Kwam Na Ja Pen won the S.E.A. Write Award, an award presented to accomplished Southeast Asian writers and poets.
A Monstrous Regiment of Women is the second book in the Mary Russell series of mystery novels by Laurie R. King.
Hugh Roger McDonald is an Australian author of several novels and a number of non-fiction works. He is also an accomplished poet and TV scriptwriter.
Franklyn MacCormack was an American radio personality in Chicago, Illinois, from the 1930s into the 1970s. After his death, Ward Quaal, the president of the last company for which MacCormack worked, described him as "a natural talent and one of the truly great performers of broadcasting's first 50 years."
Lady Florence Caroline Dixie was a Scottish writer, war correspondent, and feminist. Her account of travelling Across Patagonia, her children's books The Young Castaways and Aniwee; or, The Warrior Queen, and her feminist utopia Gloriana; or, The Revolution of 1900 all deal with feminist themes related to girls, women, and their positions in society.
Major Hesketh Vernon Prichard, later Hesketh-Prichard was an explorer, adventurer, writer, big-game hunter, marksman, and cricketer who contributed to sniping practice within the British Army during the First World War. Concerned not only with improving the quality of marksmanship, the measures he introduced to counter the threat of German snipers were credited by a contemporary with saving the lives of over 3,500 Allied soldiers.
The Old Calton Burial Ground is a cemetery in Edinburgh, Scotland. It located at Calton Hill to the north-east of the city centre. The burial ground was opened in 1718, and is the resting place of several notable Scots, including philosopher David Hume, scientist John Playfair, rival publishers William Blackwood and Archibald Constable, and clergyman Dr Robert Candlish. It is also the site of the Political Martyrs' Monument, an obelisk erected to the memory of a number of political reformers, and Scotland's American Civil War Memorial.
"Black Destroyer" is a science fiction short story by Canadian-American writer A. E. van Vogt, first published in Astounding SF in July 1939. It has been marked as the story that represents the start of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Monstrous Regiment Publishing is an independent micropublisher based in Edinburgh. The company was set up by Ellen Desmond and Lauren Nickodemus, two graduates of Edinburgh Napier University. It publishes texts that focus on "intersectional feminism, sexuality and gender."