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Samuel Marchbanks is a fictional character who wrote editorials for the Peterborough Examiner newspaper in the small city of Peterborough, Ontario, northeast of Toronto, during the middle of the 20th century.
The Peterborough Examiner is a newspaper that services Peterborough, Ontario and area. The paper started circulation in 1847, and is currently owned by Torstar and operated by its Metroland division. Between 1942 and 1955, it was edited by Canadian man of letters Robertson Davies, whose unique three-paragraph editorial style won several awards. Davies remained owner and publisher of the Examiner and Ralph Hancox the editor until 1967, when it was sold to the Thomson chain of newspapers. Subsequently, Sterling, Hollinger and Sun Media owned the newspaper before Postmedia.
Peterborough is a city on the Otonabee River in Central Ontario, Canada, 125 kilometres (78 mi) northeast of Toronto and about 270 kilometers (167 mi) southwest of Ottawa. According to the 2016 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 81,032. The population of the Peterborough Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), which includes the surrounding Townships of Selwyn, Cavan Monaghan, Otonabee-South Monaghan, and Douro-Dummer, was 121,721 in 2016. In 2016, Peterborough ranked No. 32 among the country’s 35 census metropolitan areas according to the CMA in Canada. Significant growth is expected starting in late 2019 when the Ontario Highway 407 extension is completed, connecting it to Highway 115/35 south of Peterborough. The current mayor of Peterborough is Diane Therrien.
Ontario is one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada and is located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province accounting for 38.3 percent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province in total area. Ontario is fourth-largest in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included. It is home to the nation's capital city, Ottawa, and the nation's most populous city, Toronto, which is also Ontario's provincial capital.
Marchbanks was, in fact, a pseudonym used by Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor Robertson Davies during his tenure as editor of the newspaper. Marchbanks is described as witty, cantankerous, and determinedly individualistic.
A pseudonym or alias is a name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which can differ from their first or true name (orthonym).
Canadians are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, several of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being Canadian.
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to support themselves in this way or write as an avocation. Most novelists struggle to get their debut novel published, but once published they often continue to be published, although very few become literary celebrities, thus gaining prestige or a considerable income from their work.
Three books of Marchbanks' writings have been published, supposedly with Davies as editor. The metafictional pretence of there being two separate individuals spills over into the footnotes, where disagreements between Marchbanks and Davies are evident.
Metafiction is a form of literature that emphasizes its own constructedness in a way that continually reminds the reader to be aware that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, storytelling, and directly or indirectly draw attention to their status as artifacts. Metafiction is frequently used as a form of parody or a tool to undermine literary conventions and explore the relationship between literature and reality, life, and art. Although metafiction is most commonly associated with postmodern literature, its use can be traced back to much earlier works of fiction, such as Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1387), Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605), William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c.1608), Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759), William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1847), as well as more recent works such as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), or Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979). Metafiction, however, became particularly prominent in the 1960s, with authors and works such as John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse, Robert Coover's "The Babysitter" and "The Magic Poker", Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 and William H. Gass's Willie Master's Lonesome Wife.
The Marchbanks books include The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (published in 1947), The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks (published in 1949), and Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (published in 1967). In 1985 an omnibus of the three previous Marchbanks books, The Papers of Samuel Marchbanks , was published with new notes by the author, or more correctly, by the editor (Davies).
The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, published by Clarke, Irwin in 1947, is the first of the Samuel Marchbanks books by Canadian novelist and journalist Robertson Davies. The other two books in this series are The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks (1949) and Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (1967).
This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1947.
The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks, published by Clarke Irwin in 1949, is the second of the Samuel Marchbanks books by Canadian novelist and journalist Robertson Davies. The other two books in this series are The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks (1947) and Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack (1967).
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