Graeme Gibson

Thomas Graeme Cameron Gibson CM FRCGS (9 August 1934 – 18 September 2019) was a Canadian novelist.[1] He was a Member of the Order of Canada (1992), a Senior Fellow of Massey College and one of the organizers of the Writers Union of Canada (chair, 1974–75). He was also a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, a non-profit literary organization that seeks to encourage Canada's writing community.[1]

Graeme Gibson

CM FRCGS
BornThomas Graeme Cameron Gibson
(1934-08-09)9 August 1934
London, Ontario, Canada
Died18 September 2019(2019-09-18) (aged 85)
London, England
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Western Ontario
Genres
Notable worksPerpetual Motion (1982)
SpouseShirley Gibson (div. c. 1973)
PartnerMargaret Atwood (1973–2019; his death)

Career

Gibson's family frequently moved around during his childhood, going from Halifax to Ottawa to Toronto where he attended Upper Canada College.[2] As an author, Gibson wrote both novels and non-fiction. His first novel, Five Legs (1969), is widely regarded as a breakthrough in Canadian experimental literature.[3] His other novels include Communion (1971), Gentleman Death (1993), and Perpetual Motion (1982).[1] His non-fiction included Eleven Canadian Novelists (1973) and more recently, The Bedside Book of Birds (2005) and The Bedside Book of Beasts (2009).[1]

Gibson was awarded the Toronto Arts Award (1990) the Harbourfront Festival prize in 1993, and he was made a member of the Order of Canada.[1]

An arts, environmental and social justice advocate, Gibson was one of the founders of the Writers' Union of Canada, which recognized his contribution by establishing an award in his honour in 1991.[4] He was involved in the formation of the Writer's Trust of Canada and was a co-founder and president (1987–89) of PEN Canada.[5][6]

His environmental advocacy was largely focused around his longtime love of birds. He was a founder and chair of the Pelee Island Bird Observatory, served on the Council of the World Wildlife Fund, and with Margaret Atwood, as co-chair of Birdlife International's Rare Bird Club. He was a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, which awarded him a Gold Medal in 2015.[7]

Personal life

Gibson was married to publisher Shirley Gibson until the early 1970s, and together they had two sons, Matt and Grae.[8][9] He later began dating novelist and poet Margaret Atwood in 1973.[1] They moved to a farm near Alliston, Ontario, where their daughter Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson was born in 1976. The family returned to Toronto in 1980.[10] They stayed together until his death in 2019.

The New Yorker magazine reported in its 17 April 2017 edition that Gibson had been diagnosed with early signs of dementia.[11] He died on 18 September 2019 in London, England, where Atwood was promoting her new book.[12][13]

Bibliography
  • Five Legs (1969)
  • Communion (1971)
  • Eleven Canadian Novelists (1973)
  • Perpetual Motion (1982)
  • Gentleman Death (1993)
  • The Bedside Book of Birds (2005)
  • The Bedside Book of Beasts (2009)

References
  1. Graeme Gibson's entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  2. "Author Graeme Gibson was a leader of Canada's literary scene". Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  3. "The Muse Acclimatized". Canadian Literature. 1969.
  4. "Graeme Gibson Award". The Writers Union of Canada. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  5. "Our Story". Writers' Trust of Canada. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  6. "In Memoriam Graeme Gibson". PEN Canada. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  7. "Remembering Author and Environmentalist Graeme Gibson". Canadian Geographic Society. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  8. Potts, Robert (26 April 2003). "Light in the wilderness". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  9. "The elusive Margaret Atwood | Quill and Quire". Quill and Quire. 28 April 2004. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  10. Sutherland, John (2012). Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives. Yale University Press. p. 721. ISBN 978-0-300-18243-9.
  11. "Margaret Atwood, the Prophet of Dystopia". The New Yorker. 18 September 2019.
  12. "Doubleday today shares the sad news that celebrated Canadian author Graeme Gibson has died". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  13. "Canadian author Graeme Gibson dead at 85". CP24. 18 September 2019.
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