Little Man (novel)

Last updated
Little Man
Author G. Herbert Sallans
Publisher Ryerson Press
Publication date
1942
Publication place Canada
Pages234

Little Man is a Canadian novel written by G. Herbert Sallans in 1942. It is a coming of age story set in the early part of the 20th century, depicting the life of a young man growing up in the Canadian west. It won the Governor General's award for fiction in 1942. It is semi-autobiographical, following Sallans' own life story up until the release of the novel.

Contents

Plot

The story begins in France during World War I. George Battle, a new recruit experiences first hand the concussive experience of trench warfare. What follows is a flashback to his early life growing up in Saskatchewan farm country. Various episodes in Battle's life are portrayed: college, World War I duty in the artillery, a journalist job in British Columbia and finally how his life is affected by the Second World War. [1]

Awards

Little Man won the first Ryerson Fiction Award in 1942. At the time of the award, the prize was worth $500. The judges were: S. Morgan-Powell, chief editor of the Montreal Star; Pelham Edgar, a professor at Victoria College; and Lorne Pierce of Ryerson Press. [2] It later won the Governor General's Literary Award for best fiction novel. The judges were: novelist Alan Sullivan; J. E. Middleton, editor of the Toronto Saturday Night magazine; and Norman Endicott, a professor of English at the University of Toronto. [3]

Reception

The selection of Little Man was viewed by some readers as a poor choice. More popular books included Hardy's All the Trumpets Sounded; Raddall's His Majesty's Yankees; and Campbell's Thorn-apple Tree. Little Man's best attribute was its story of contemporary Canadian life. The novel was not praised for its writing quality or its general structure. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Shields</span> Canadian writer

Carol Ann Shields was an American-born Canadian novelist and short story writer. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.

Russell Claude Smith is a Canadian writer and newspaper columnist. Smith's novels and short stories are mostly set in Toronto, where he lives.

Guy Clarence Vanderhaeghe is a Canadian novelist and short story writer, best known for his Western novel trilogy, The Englishman's Boy, The Last Crossing, and A Good Man set in the 19th-century American and Canadian West. Vanderhaeghe has won three Governor General's Awards for his fiction, one for his short story collection Man Descending in 1982, the second for his novel The Englishman's Boy in 1996, and the third for his short story collection Daddy Lenin and Other Stories in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christie Blatchford</span> Canadian journalist

Christie Marie Blatchford was a Canadian newspaper columnist, journalist and broadcaster. She published four non-fiction books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Toews</span> Canadian writer (born 1964)

Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer and author of nine books, including A Complicated Kindness (2004), All My Puny Sorrows (2014), and Women Talking (2018). She has won a number of literary prizes including the Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award for her body of work. Toews is also a three-time finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a two-time winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

André Alexis is a Canadian writer who was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, grew up in Ottawa, and now lives in Toronto, Ontario. He has received numerous awards including the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, the Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and the Trillium Award.

Richard Bruce Wright was a Canadian novelist. He was known for his break-through 2001 novel Clara Callan, which won three major literary awards in Canada: The Giller Prize, the Trillium Book Award, and the Governor General's Award.

The Governor General's Award for English-language fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a fiction book written in English. It is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, seven each for creators of English- and French-language books. The awards was created by the Canadian Authors Association in partnership with Lord Tweedsmuir in 1936. In 1959, the award became part of the Governor General's Awards program at the Canada Council for the Arts in 1959. The age requirement is 18 and up.

This is a list of recipients and nominees of the Governor General's Awards award for English-language poetry. The award was created in 1981 when the Governor General's Award for English language poetry or drama was divided.

For the Australian professional golfer, see Wayne Grady.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Spalding</span> Canadian writer and editor (born 1943)

Linda Spalding is a Canadian writer and editor. Born in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Jacob Alan Dickinson and Edith Senner, she lived in Mexico and Hawaii before moving to Toronto, Ontario in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Foran</span> Canadian writer in Toronto, Ontario

Charles William Foran is a Canadian writer in Toronto, Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marina Endicott</span> Canadian writer

Marina Endicott is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. Her novel Good to a Fault won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Canada and the Caribbean and was a finalist for the Giller Prize. Her next, The Little Shadows, was longlisted for the Giller Prize and shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award. Close to Hugh was longlisted for the Giller Prize and named one of CBC's Best Books of 2015. The Difference won the City of Edmonton Robert Kroetsch Prize. It was published in the US by W. W. Norton as The Voyage of the Morning Light in June 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madeleine Thien</span> Canadian short story writer and novelist

Madeleine Thien is a Canadian short story writer and novelist. The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature has considered her work as reflecting the increasingly trans-cultural nature of Canadian literature, exploring art, expression and politics inside Cambodia and China, as well as within diasporic East Asian communities. Thien's critically acclaimed novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, won the 2016 Governor General's Award for English-language fiction, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards for Fiction. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, and the 2017 Rathbones Folio Prize. Her books have been translated into more than 25 languages.

Trevor Cole is a Canadian novelist and journalist. He has published five novels; the first two, Norman Bray in the Performance of his Life (2004) and The Fearsome Particles (2006), were nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather O'Neill</span> Canadian writer (b. 1973)

Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, who published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006. The novel was subsequently selected for the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by singer-songwriter John K. Samson. Lullabies won the competition. The book also won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for eight other major awards, including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award and was longlisted for International Dublin Literary Award.

George Herbert Sallans was a Canadian writer and journalist, whose novel Little Man won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction and the Ryerson Fiction Award in 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esi Edugyan</span> Canadian novelist (born 1978)

Esi Edugyan is a Canadian novelist. She has twice won the Giller Prize, for her novels Half-Blood Blues (2011) and Washington Black (2018).

The 1942 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were the seventh rendition of the Governor General's Awards, Canada's annual national awards program which then comprised literary awards alone. The awards recognized Canadian writers for new English-language works published in Canada during 1942 and were presented in 1943. There were no cash prizes.

The Ryerson Fiction Award, also known as the All-Canada Prize, was a Canadian literary award, presented irregularly between 1942 and 1960. Presented by Ryerson Press, the award was given to an unpublished manuscript by a new or emerging writer, which was then published by Ryerson Press, and the prize consisted of $1,000 of which $500 was an advance on royalties.

References

  1. "G. H. Sallans' 'Little Man' All-Canada Award Winner". Toronto Daily Star. November 21, 1942. p. 9.
  2. "G. Herbert Sallans, Newspaperman, Wins Ryerson $500 Fiction Prize". The Globe and Mail. May 9, 1942. p. 8.
  3. 1 2 Deacon, William Arthur (June 19, 1943). "Governor-General's Annual Literary Awards Go to Sallans, Birney, Hutchison, Mclnnis". The Globe and Mail. p. 11.