Gabrielle Roy

By André Vanasse

In 1945, Gabrielle Roy skyrocketed to fame and fortune when her first novel, The Tin Flute, was an instant hit. Over 700,000 copies sold in the United States, and the book was awarded the prestigious Prix Fna in France. In Canada, The Tin Flute received a Governor Generals Award. Gabrielle Roy dedicated herself to her vocation as a writer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dundurn
• Release date: Jan 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781770706439

André Vanasse

André Vanasse obtained a Ph.D. in literature from the Université de Paris-Vincennes. He is vice-chairman and editorial director of XYZ éditeur. He is directs the Romanichels and the Étoile variables collections, and is editor of the literary magazine Lettres Québécoises. André also writes novels and essays.

Book preview

Gabrielle Roy, 1909–1983

André Vanasse

Born in 1942, André Vanasse is literary director of the Montreal-based press XYZ éditeur/XYZ Publishing and editor of the literary magazine Lettres québécoises. A founding member of the Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures, he was also a member of the first executive committee of the Public Lending Right Commission. As a professor of literature and creative writing, he taught young scholars and writers at the Université du Québec à Montréal for many years. He received an Award of Merit from the Association for Canadian Studies in 1993 for his exceptional role in the development of French Canadian literature.

André Vanasse is also an essayist and novelist. He has published essays, anthologies, three novels for adults and two for young people, and more than two hundred articles in journals and magazines. He has been a finalist for the Grand Prix littéraire de la ville de Montréal and the Governor General’s Literary Award. In 2005, he received the Medal of Honour from l’Académie des lettres du Québec in recognition of his lifetime achievements in developing Quebec literature.

The translator: Darcy Dunton

Darcy Dunton holds a Licence ès Lettres and an M.Sc. from the Université de Montréal. Her translations from French to English include the Quest Library biographies of Jacques Plante and Emma Albani, and Willie Thomas’s novel Cristoforo (Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal). She also compiles the indexes of the books in the Quest Library series, a job she views as a wonderful way to know a lot about interesting Canadians.

THE QUEST LIBRARY

is edited by

Rhonda Bailey

The Editorial Board is composed of

Lynne Bowen

Janet Lunn

T.F. Rigelhof

Editorial correspondence:

Rhonda Bailey, Editorial Director

XYZ Publishing

P.O. Box 250

Lantzville, BC

V0R 2H0

E-mail: [e-mail]

In the same collection

Ven Begamudré, Isaac Brock: Larger Than Life.

Lynne Bowen, Robert Dunsmuir: Laird of the Mines.

Kate Braid, Emily Carr: Rebel Artist.

Kathryn Bridge, Phyllis Munday: Mountaineer.

William Chalmers, George Mercer Dawson: Geologist, Scientist, Explorer.

Anne Cimon, Susanna Moodie: Pioneer Author.

Deborah Cowley, Lucille Teasdale: Doctor of Courage.

Gary Evans, John Grierson: Trailblazer of Documentary Film.

Judith Fitzgerald, Marshall McLuhan: Wise Guy.

lian goodall, William Lyon Mackenzie King: Dreams and Shadows.

Stephen Eaton Hume, Frederick Banting: Hero, Healer, Artist.

Naïm Kattan, A.M. Klein: Poet and Prophet.

Betty Keller, Pauline Johnson: First Aboriginal Voice of Canada.

Heather Kirk, Mazo de la Roche: Rich and Famous Writer.

Michelle Labrèche-Larouche, Emma Albani: International Star.

Wayne Larsen, A.Y. Jackson: A Love for the Land.

Francine Legaré, Samuel de Champlain: Father of New France.

Margaret Macpherson, Nellie McClung: Voice for the Voiceless.

Dave Margoshes, Tommy Douglas: Building the New Society.

Marguerite Paulin, René Lévesque: Charismatic Leader.

Marguerite Paulin, Maurice Duplessis: Powerbroker, Politician.

Raymond Plante, Jacques Plante: Behind the Mask.

T.F. Rigelhof, George Grant: Redefining Canada.

Tom Shardlow, David Thompson: A Trail by Stars.

Arthur Slade, John Diefenbaker: An Appointment with Destiny.

Roderick Stewart, Wilfrid Laurier: A Pledge for Canada.

John Wilson, John Franklin: Traveller on Undiscovered Seas.

John Wilson, Norman Bethune: A Life of Passionate Conviction.

Rachel Wyatt, Agnes Macphail: Champion of the Underdog.

Gabrielle Roy

ANDRÉ VANASSE

Gabrielle ROY

A PASSION FOR WRITING

Copyright © 2004 André Vanasse and XYZ éditeur.

English translation copyright © 2007 Darcy Dunton and XYZ Publishing.

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and Library and Archives Canada cataloguing in publication

Vanasse, André, 1942–

Gabrielle Roy : a passion for writing

(The Quest library ; 30)

Translation of: Gabrielle Roy : écrire, une vocation

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-894852-25-8

1. Roy, Gabrielle, 1909–1983. 2. Authors, Canadian (French) – Québec (Province) – Biography. 3. Authors, Canadian (French) – 20th century – Biography. I. Title. II. Series: Quest library ; 30.

PS8535.O95Z99513 2007           C843’.54          C2007-940611-4C813’.3

PS9535.O95Z99513 2007

Legal Deposit: Second quarter 2007

Library and Archives Canada

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec

XYZ Publishing acknowledges the support of The Quest Library project by the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of Canada.

The publishers further acknowledge the financial support our publishing program receives from The Canada Council for the Arts, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, and the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles.

Chronology: Michèle Vanasse and Darcy Dunton

Index: Darcy Dunton

Layout: Édiscript enr.

Cover design: Zirval Design

Cover illustration: Francine Auger

International Rights: Contact André Vanasse, tel. [phone] # 25

E-mail: [e-mail]

To Laurence,

for the beauty of her shyness

and her touching affection.

All fire, all flame, then nothing but poor ashes.

— GABRIELLE ROY

Contents

Prologue

1 In the Garden Swing

2 The Baleful Shadow of Adèle

3 A Heavy Secret

4 Married Life in Paris

5 The Invisible Demigod

6 The Tin Flute

7 The Long Purgatory

Epilogue

Chronology of Gabrielle Roy (1909–1983)

Bibliography and Recommended Further Reading

Index

Acknowledgments

Iwould like to thank André Brochu for having attentively read the manuscript, twice. Because of his pertinent remarks, I was obliged to rearrange the first version of this biography from top to bottom. See what friendship can get us into!

My thanks also go to François Ricard for his vast biographical research on Gabrielle Roy and for spontaneously offering me access to the Gabrielle Roy Papers.

Gabrielle Roy near the end of her life.

Her ravaged face torments me – I see in it the disappointment I caused her. I feel so miserable I’d like to crawl underground and disappear, to somehow erase her haunting image from my memory. (p. 1)

Prologue

The day I met Gabrielle Roy is one of my bad memories. Whenever I think of her, I feel uncomfortable, and I can’t shake the feeling for a long time. Her ravaged face torments me – I see in it the disappointment I caused her. I feel so miserable I’d like to crawl underground and disappear, to somehow erase her haunting image from my memory.

I’ve always been a little erratic. I have sudden enthusiasms. But once my excitement dies down, I forget my resolutions and slip into a characteristic, despicable vice: procrastination, the weakness that always makes me put off what should imperatively be done right away I stall. I beat around the bush. I let myself get bogged down in situations that end up being intolerable. It’s painful for me and even worse for the other people involved.

This is what happened with Gabrielle Roy.

As a member of the Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures, I’d been asked to invite her to be our guest of honour at a reception at the University of Saskatoon in May 1979, during a meeting of Learned Societies. On this occasion, our Association was going to present her with a gift in recognition of her inestimable contribution to literature. In conjunction with this event, we had decided to create the Gabrielle Roy Prize, an annual award for a literary essay, which would alternate yearly between a French-language and an English-language work.

I had just finished reading Gabrielle Roy’s Children of My Heart, a book that had moved me very much, and I was thrilled at the idea of announcing our decision and telling her about our plans for the prize. I did this in a letter I sent to her in Florida, where she was spending the winter.

She wrote back to me immediately to say that she was sorry, but, for health reasons, she could not attend the ceremony. I wasn’t surprised: I’d known already what her answer would be. Gabrielle Roy almost always refused invitations of this kind, simply because she detested official tributes. However much she may have relished these occasions in her youth, when she entered her forties – in fact, soon after the publication of The Tin Flute – she’d cut herself off from the literary crowd.

I’d been expecting her refusal, so I was delighted that she was willing to participate in another way: through her writing. Instead of coming to Saskatoon in person, she would write a speech for me to deliver on her behalf at the Association banquet.

I won’t go into detail about my reaction when I got off the plane in Saskatoon and found out that my luggage had been lost in transit. Had it been sent to Bangkok, San Francisco, or some unknown destination? I was mortified, not only because I didn’t have anything to wear, but also because Gabrielle Roy’s written acknowledgment was in one of the missing bags. If I didn’t get it back within twenty-four hours, the event we were looking forward to so much was going to be a bust. I cringed at the thought of having to improvise a little speech to explain what had gone wrong and to try to convey the gist of Gabrielle Roy’s message. I could already picture the disappointment on the assembled guests’ faces.

Fortunately, my suitcases were delivered to Saskatoon in time, and I was able to read the short text, which created a palpable emotion in the room. I had been saved.

Even so, my trouble with Gabrielle Roy had just begun. I was also assigned the task of sending her the Association’s gift, a mark of our esteem and affection. It was a lithograph entitled Territoire canadien, by British Columbia artist Francine Gravel.

For a reason I would never discover, the artwork in question arrived in Quebec City, at the Château Saint-Louis where Gabrielle lived, but was never handed to her personally.

That’s when things really went wrong. Gabrielle wrote me that she hadn’t received the promised print. I made inquiries and sent a letter to the delivery company, but these actions proved futile. Gabrielle had never laid eyes on the gift we’d selected for her, even though I had evidence, in the form of a receipt, that someone had signed for the parcel in the lobby of her apartment building. The lithograph had literally vanished into thin air.

Several months passed before I finally resolved, in September 1979, to re-establish contact with Gabrielle by seeking her out at Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, in the Charlevoix region northeast of Quebec City. Her little house there was her haven: every year, for twenty years or more, she would arrive with the first warm spring days and remain until late autumn. By going there, I could apologize in person for the mishap and tell her that I intended to seek compensation from the delivery company.

My meeting with Gabrielle was to affect me for the rest of