The W.L. Morton Lecture 2010
Richler Biographer Charlie Foran Delivered the 2010 W.L. Morton Lecture at Trent University
The 2010 W.L. Morton Lecture to be given by Charlie Foran “He Wouldn’t Join Any Club that Would Have Him as a Member: Mordecai Richler and Canadian Culture”, in the Champlain College Lecture Hall, Room 307 on October 14 at 6 p.m.
Charlie Foran has published nine books, including four novels. He is a contributing reviewer for The Globe and Mail and writes regularly for magazines and newspapers in Canada and elsewhere. He has created radio documentaries for CBC’s Ideas on subjects ranging from Hong Kong cinema to contemporary Indian writing. His biography, Mordecai: The Life & Times, will be published on October 19, 2010 by Knopf Canada.
In a review of the biography, Trent alumnus and award winning novelist Yann Martel is quoted on the book’s jacket: “With the insight of a novelist and the accuracy of a journalist, Charles Foran vividly renders the life of Mordecai Richler, in all his complexity and with all his contradictions. A great, authoritative biography, as entertaining as it is informative."
One of Canada's foremost novelists, Mordecai Richler wrote books such as The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, St. Urbain's Horseman, Barney's Version, and Joshua Then and Now, which portrayed young protagonists searching for values in a corrupt world. A controversial and prolific writer from Montreal, Richler penned upwards of 300 journalistic pieces and was also an occasional scriptwriter.
“Mordecai Richler was no joiner,” remarks Foran. “The iconic novelist and critic, once called the “loyal opposition to the governing principles of Canadian culture,” blazed a solitary trail through Canadian literary and political life for nearly a half-century.” Foran’s talk charts Richler’s extraordinary and mutually enriching tussle between the outsized artist and the emerging culture of an awakening nation.
A free and public event presented by the Department of History and the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies, the W.L. Morton Lecture is named in honour of W.L. Morton, the Canadian historian and former Master of Trent's Champlain College. This is a free public event. All are welcome.