Review
“Typing: A Life in 26 Keys is important not only for what it reveals about one of the country’s most respected writers, but for the light it sheds on the years during which Canadian culture came of age. [it is]…a deeply affecting work, an eloquent conclusion to a life devoted to writing.” – The Kitchener-Waterloo Record
“However we view it, Typing is the most penetrating exploration of the dark side of creative genius I’ve read since Lawrence Durrell’s The Black Book....” – The Globe and Mail
"Matt was a consummate writer. I don't know of anyone who lived a commitment to the process of writing more thoroughly and with more intensity than he did." —Margaret Atwood
"I believe that when the dust has settled, long after we've joined him, readers in many countries will be finding their way into the funny, poignant, bittersweet pleasures of Matt Cohen's imagination. This is a body of work whose stature will grow with time." —Dennis Lee
Review
?Typing: A Life in 26 Keys is important not only for what it reveals about one of the country?s most respected writers, but for the light it sheds on the years during which Canadian culture came of age. [it is]?a deeply affecting work, an eloquent conclusion to a life devoted to writing.? ? The Kitchener-Waterloo Record
?However we view it, Typing is the most penetrating exploration of the dark side of creative genius I?ve read since Lawrence Durrell?s The Black Book....? ? The Globe and Mail
"Matt was a consummate writer. I don't know of anyone who lived a commitment to the process of writing more thoroughly and with more intensity than he did." ?Margaret Atwood
"I believe that when the dust has settled, long after we've joined him, readers in many countries will be finding their way into the funny, poignant, bittersweet pleasures of Matt Cohen's imagination. This is a body of work whose stature will grow with time." ?Dennis Lee
Book Description
Matt Cohen left us all a gift when he decided, in the last six months of his life, to write a memoir. Typing is an invaluable and touching reckoning of the writing life, funny in many places, brilliant in others. It's also the story of the flourishing of writing in Canada: Cohen was at the centre of our country's cultural life for over three decades. He was one of the founders of the Writers' Union; he was the brains behind many initiatives, including the successful lobbying for the public lending right; he was a translator of Quebec writers into English. After his death, it became clear that Cohen was a touchstone for many writers and readers in this country, at the same time as he was a dedicated outsider, a Jewish intellectual moving through a WASPish cultural woods.
Typing includes rare and wonderful portraits of George Grant, Hugh Garner, Morley Callaghan and Margaret Laurence, writers who came ahead of him and who posed their own puzzles of recognition and success. Cohen's memoir is rich in recollection, from his early days at Rochdale writing hip, stream-of-consciousness novels to his move to a farm near Kingston, Ontario, where the southern Ontario landscape captured his imagination and inspired such novels as The Disinherited, The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone and, years later, Elizabeth and After. Through the ebbs and flows of literary fashion and worldly acclaim, Cohen stayed constant to the demands of fiction.
This memoir ends in the present tense. Cohen had a novel he wanted to finish, and he was certain he wouldn't die before he was done. He wasn't so lucky, but we, at least, have these last pages in which Matt Cohen's voice is utterly alive.
From the Inside Flap
Matt Cohen left us all a gift when he decided, in the last six months of his life, to write a memoir. Typing is an invaluable and touching reckoning of the writing life, funny in many places, brilliant in others. It's also the story of the flourishing of writing in Canada: Cohen was at the centre of our country's cultural life for over three decades. He was one of the founders of the Writers' Union; he was the brains behind many initiatives, including the successful lobbying for the public lending right; he was a translator of Quebec writers into English. After his death, it became clear that Cohen was a touchstone for many writers and readers in this country, at the same time as he was a dedicated outsider, a Jewish intellectual moving through a WASPish cultural woods.
Typing includes rare and wonderful portraits of George Grant, Hugh Garner, Morley Callaghan and Margaret Laurence, writers who came ahead of him and who posed their own puzzles of recognition and success. Cohen's memoir is rich in recollection, from his early days at Rochdale writing hip, stream-of-consciousness novels to his move to a farm near Kingston, Ontario, where the southern Ontario landscape captured his imagination and inspired such novels as The Disinherited, The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone and, years later, Elizabeth and After. Through the ebbs and flows of literary fashion and worldly acclaim, Cohen stayed constant to the demands of fiction.
This memoir ends in the present tense. Cohen had a novel he wanted to finish, and he was certain he wouldn't die before he was done. He wasn't so lucky, but we, at least, have these last pages in which Matt Cohen's voice is utterly alive.
From the Back Cover
“Typing: A Life in 26 Keys is important not only for what it reveals about one of the country’s most respected writers, but for the light it sheds on the years during which Canadian culture came of age. [it is]…a deeply affecting work, an eloquent conclusion to a life devoted to writing.” – The Kitchener-Waterloo Record
“However we view it, Typing is the most penetrating exploration of the dark side of creative genius I’ve read since Lawrence Durrell’s The Black Book....” – The Globe and Mail
"Matt was a consummate writer. I don't know of anyone who lived a commitment to the process of writing more thoroughly and with more intensity than he did." —Margaret Atwood
"I believe that when the dust has settled, long after we've joined him, readers in many countries will be finding their way into the funny, poignant, bittersweet pleasures of Matt Cohen's imagination. This is a body of work whose stature will grow with time." —Dennis Lee
About the Author
Shortly before his death in December 1999, Matt Cohen won the Governor General’s Award for his novel Elizabeth and After and the Harbourfront Festival Prize in honour of his life as a writer. In 1998 he received the Toronto Arts Award for writing. He is the author of thirteen novels as well as poetry, short stories, books for children and works of translation from French into English.
Typing FROM THE PUBLISHER
Matt Cohen left us all a gift when he decided, in the last six months of his life, to write a memoir. Typing is an invaluable and touching reckoning of the writing life, funny in many places, brilliant in others. It's also the story of the flourishing of writing in Canada: Cohen was at the centre of our country's cultural life for over three decades. He was one of the founders of the Writers' Union; he was the brains behind many initiatives, including the successful lobbying for the public lending right; he was a translator of Quebec writers into English. After his death, it became clear that Cohen was a touchstone for many writers and readers in this country, at the same time as he was a dedicated outsider, a Jewish intellectual moving through a WASPish cultural woods.
Typing includes rare and wonderful portraits of George Grant, Hugh Garner, Morley Callaghan and Margaret Laurence, writers who came ahead of him and who posed their own puzzles of recognition and success. Cohen's memoir is rich in recollection, from his early days at Rochdale writing hip, stream-of-consciousness novels to his move to a farm near Kingston, Ontario, where the southern Ontario landscape captured his imagination and inspired such novels as The Disinherited, The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone and, years later, Elizabeth and After. Through the ebbs and flows of literary fashion and worldly acclaim, Cohen stayed constant to the demands of fiction.
This memoir ends in the present tense. Cohen had a novel he wanted to finish, and he was certain he wouldn't die before he was done. He wasn't so lucky, but we, at least, have these last pages in which Matt Cohen'svoice is utterly alive.
Art & Photography
Book Info
