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Al Purdy A-Frame
Fundraiser Anthology "And Left a Place To Stand On" www.CanadaCubaLiteraryAlliance.org/A-FrameBook.html "Hidden Brook Press's anthology "And Left a Place To Stand On" is destined to become a classic in the emerging canon of Canadian People's Poetry. Congratulations to all of the editor and contributors. This collection is dynamite and deserves all the praise its getting - doubled - tripled!!!" Chris Faiers <zenriver @ sympatico.ca>  $22.50 Contact the publisher, Richard M. Grove / Tai writers@HiddenBrookPress.com and let us know how many books you would like and we will let you know how much shipping will be. One can pay by cheque or PayPal. Three copies or more and we will pay the shipping. |
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 Al Purdy |
 Al Purdy A-frame |
The CCLA is proud to announce, "And Left a Place To Stand On", an anthology
of poetry and essays on Al Purdy, published by Hidden Brook Press. This anthology
is an A-frame fundraiser book. 100% of the profit from the sale of this book
will be donated to the A-frame Trust established by Jean Baird.
See the website for the A-frame Trust at - www.alpurdy.ca
The house that Al Purdy built, an "A-frame" on the shore of Roblin Lake in Prince Edward
County, Ontario, is an important part of our Canadian literary heritage. As you might know
this house is slated for possible demolition because of its growing land value. Jean Baird,
long time friend of Al and Eurithe Purdy, has started a trust fund for the purchase of the
Purdy home with the aim of preserving it as a writer's retreat. The donation of all profits
from this CCLA anthology "Purdy Country" will go towards supporting Jean's effort to save
the house.
If you have any questions about the A-frame Trust or would like to donate to this cause
you can contact: Jean Baird at - jeanbaird@shaw.ca.
Al Purdy A-frame Trust
Editors:
(thank you editors for volunteering your time)
– Allan Briesmaster – Chapter of letters
– John B. Lee – Chapter on Poems on Purdy Country
– Linda Rogers – Chapter on People’s Poetry
– R. D. Roy – Chapter on Poems on Al Purdy
Thank you
Julie McNeill
for coming on board as cover designer and layout designer for our book.
You can find McNeill Design Art at
http://www.mcneilldesign.com
(Thank you authors for donating your poems for this book)
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Published by Hidden Brook Press ISBN – 978-1-897475-33-1 Table of Contents – Forward from
CCLA President – Richard M. Grove – Forward from
HBP Publisher – Richard M. Grove Chapter 1 – “Letters to and from Al.” Editor Allan Briesmaster List of letters Letter – Allan
Briesmaster to Al Purdy Letter – Al
Purdy to Chris Faiers Letter – Liz
Zetlin to Al Purdy Letter – Jeff
Seffinga to Al Purdy Letter – Diane
Dawber to Al Purdy Letter – Al
Purdy to Diane Dawber
Chapter 2 – “Al Purdy Country” Editor – John B. Lee – Forward from
John B. Lee
– The A-Frame
House Still Stands – Peggy Fletcher – Where poetry
is more than just words – Donna Allard and Nat Hall – Landscape – R.
D. Roy – In Search of
Roblin Lake – Debbie Okun Hill – The Sun is
Hot – Theodore Chistou – Expedition to
Purdy Territory – Dorothy Sjoholm – Summer of
Cinnamon Trees – Yaqoob Ghaznavi – Night Train –
Cameron Scott – North of the
Great Lakes – James Deahl – Saturday,
October 13, 1990 … – Wayne Schlepp – The Jack Pine
– James Deahl – The Only
Thing Missing – Terry Ann Carter – This is not a
rural poem – Shane Neilson – Summer Barns
– James Deahl – Winter Barn –
James Deahl – Requiem on
Old Route 2 – Shane Neilson – Moira River –
Katherine Beeman – Moon River – Jim
Larwill – Two Haiku – Terry
Ann Carter – One Haiku – James
Deahl – Lost
Waterfall – Stephen Heighton – In the Middle
of Nowhere – Katherine Beeman – Carrying
Place – Carol Malyon – Fishing with
Big Blue – Chris Faiers – Heronic Ode –
Vivien M. Taylor – Children
Singing – Stan White – October Night
– Jeff Seffinga – Zen River
Memories – Kent Bowman – Being Where
We Are – John B. Lee – The Whiff of Mussel
Mud – Zach Wells – Ghost Country
– Yaqoob Ghaznavi – In the Snow –
Kate Marshall Flaherty – Maps of the
Top of the World – Stephen Heighton – Driving
Across Land Settled by Loyalists One Week Before Thanksgiving – James
Deahl – English
Cemetery/ Gaspe – Stephen Heighton – Long Black
Feathers – Donna Allard – On the
Frontenac Axis – Jeff Seffinga – Solitude
& Shield – Katherine Gordon – After We
Visit “The Voice of the Land” – Catherine Graham – Famous Last
Lines – Linda Rogers – Something
Finally Happens – Carol Malyon
Chapter 3 – “People’s Poets On People’s
Poetry” Editor – Linda Rogers Chapter Forward – Linda Rogers, poet
laureate of Victoria – Poem – The
Signature of Slaves – Poem – Weep
for Africa – Poem – The Chalk Garden – Poem – Half of Everything – Poem – The Lilac Glove Essay – bill
bissett – Poem – th president – Poem – bb 4 lr 4ap A frame – Poem – mattr – Poem – time – Poem –
embrace Essay – James
Deahl – Poem – North
Of The Great Lakes – Poem – The
Jack Pine – Poem –
Driving Across Land Settled By The Loyalists One Week Before Thanksgiving Essay – John B. Lee, Poet Laureate of
Brantford – Poem – The
Death of an old Blind Lion in Afghanistan – Poem – The
Last Photograph of my Father – Poem – In the
Muddy Shoes of Morning – Poem –
Failing Russian – Poem – The
Fishgutters in the Morning Essay – Robert Priest – Poem – Poetry
Is... – Poem – Rosa
Sat
Chapter 4 – “What About Al Purdy?” Editor – R.D. Roy Preface – “What About Al Purdy?” – R.D. Roy
– Al Purdy –
Jane Munroe – Beer – John
B. Lee – In the Snow –
Kate Marshall Flaherty – All the Rules
– Jay Ruzesky – Elegy For Al
Purdy – John B. Lee – GEE AL –
Louise O'Donnell – Purdy In the
Galapagos: A New Species – Fraser Sutherland – Habitant –
Martin Durkin – I Am Just a
Title—The poem that Al Purdy didn't have time to write – Goran Simic – View From The
Bridge – Linda Rogers – Once In 1965
– Robert Currie – Al Purdy –
Louise O'Donnell – At The Quinte
Hotel, Part 2 – John Pigeau – Obverse /
Reverse – Jeff Seffinga – The Great
Canadian Poetry Reading – Peggy Fletcher – How Little We
Need to Live, to Know – Rob Taylor – Long Last
Canadian Night – John Pigeau – Purdy
Unveiled – Richard M.Grove – Al Purdy at
the Young Socialist Forum – David Pratt – Maps of the
Top of the World – Steven Heighton – A Drive With
Al Purdy – Richard M. Grove – Idiot’s Song
II – Donna Kane – The Blue
Heron’s Last Picture – Susan Brannigan-Rampp – Tribute to Al
Purdy – Stan White – The Grass at
Batoche – Glen Sorestad – This Lady: a
Cautious Woman - downstairs in that bar – Bernice Lever – Some Thoughts
About Al Purdy And The Quinte Hotel – Joseph Bush – Picnic with
Al – Chris Faiers – Reading Al
Purdy In The Second Cup, One Week Before the Winter Solstice – Marilyn Gear
Pilling – I Too Look
Out My Window – Ted Chritou – Purdy
Remembered – Shane Neilson – A Purdy Rap –
Honey Novick – Cactus
Cathedral ... remembering Al Purdy – Glen Sorestad – For the CNDN
beatnik .....knowing the meaning of working monies – Martin Durkin – At The
Rebecca Cohn Auditorium – Zachariah Wells – Reflections
on a Line from Al Purdy – Gordon Gilhuly – Al Purdy Sits
in Queen’s Park – Caroline Morgan Di Giovanni – The
Workingman – Martin Durkin
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Author Orders:
Thank you authors for donating your work to this anthology. Your contribution has made this project possible.
Authors will be offered the selling price of $10 per book.
Let us know how many books you think you will need. Ordering in advance will help us determine how many books to order.
CCLA Members:
If you are a CCLA member you are offered a 25% discount on your second book.
Ordering Details:
All order are subject to shipping, handling and taxes.
Did you see the article in the Globe and Mail - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080711.walpurdy12/BNStory/Entertainment/home
PATRICK WHITE
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
July 11, 2008 at 11:31 PM EDT
Excerpts below - click url above for full article and picture.
Canadian poet Al Purdy wrote most of his best work in a small a-frame cabin tucked along the shore of Roblin Lake in Prince Edward County. Eight years after Purdy's death, his wife is now putting the old a-frame up for sale. (Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail)
Roblin Lake – a “backwater puddle of a lake,” her late poet husband once wrote – soon shimmers into view. Cedars tower overhead. Willows rustle in the breeze. An asylum of birds chatter. It's no wonder Al Purdy called this little corner of Ontario's Prince Edward County his “tangential backyard universe.”
When Purdy died in 2000, he was hailed as one of the greatest Canadian poets of the last century. He had written more than 40 books, won a trophy case of awards, circled the globe. In May, a larger-than-life bronze statue of him was erected in Toronto.
Despite the caviar receptions and gold accolades, he always returned to this jury-rigged little A-frame tacked to a low-slung, leaning bungalow. The whole edifice, he observed, “bent a little in the wind and dreamt of the trees it came from.” Here, he could observe all his poetry's recurring themes: love, death, ego, “the glories of copulation.”
But after a half-century as a sanctuary for birds, bugs and broke poets, the Purdy place may soon be demolished. In the coming months, Eurithe Purdy plans to put it up for sale. “It's become too much for me,” she says.
“Whoever buys it,” she adds, ... “I think they would change it beyond recognition, if they didn't tear it down.”
Anyone familiar with Purdy's work would recognize the cottage's literary and historical significance. The Purdys bought the Ameliasburgh, Ont., property in 1957, desperate to escape Montreal, where, according to one poem, Purdy had failed at “poems plays prose and just being a human being.” They dropped their last dollar on a down payment and moved “so far from anywhere/even homing pigeons lost their way/getting back home to nowhere.”
The move soon paid off creatively, inspiring what is perhaps the most famous metamorphosis in Canadian literary history. Once a struggling writer of tortured romantic verse, Purdy and his work changed forever along the shores of Roblin Lake.
The home itself was the product of two months' worth of amateur carpentry and drunken squabbling between Purdy and fellow poet Milton Acorn.
Michael Ondaatje, Tom Marshall and David Helwig hadn't published a single book between them when “Al and Eurithe simply invited us in,” writes Ondaatje in the foreword to Purdy's collected works. “And why? Because we were poets! Not well-known writers or newspaper celebrities. … These visits became essential to our lives. We weren't there for gossip, certainly not to discuss royalties and publishers. We were there to talk about poetry. Read poems aloud. Argue over them. Complain about prosody.”
That role as literary salon has faded since Purdy's death. Eurithe Purdy now divides her time between her home in Sidney, B.C., and her son's in Belleville, Ont.
Click url for full article
http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1184219
See below for excerpt from article from the Intelligencer
September 4, 2008
Purdy's lakeside home needs to be saved
A piece of local history could soon be for sale.
We can only hope the several fundraising efforts underway to preserve the weathered A-frame the late famous Canadian poet Al Purdy once called home will be successful.
If they are not successful, however, Purdy's wife, Eurithe, who spends most of her time at the couple's home in British Columbia, may be forced to sell. According to various newspaper reports, the 84-year-old does not want to put the Roblin Lake property on the auction block, but no longer feels able to care for it.
The fear is, with waterfront property at such a premium these days, if his widow is forced to sell, it is likely someone would buy the Purdy property, level the home and build a modern one in its place.
Built by Purdy and his friend and fellow poet Milton Acorn, the smallish rough-hewn building is a shrine to the literary element of Canada and deserves to be saved.
Purdy is easily this area's claim to literary fame. When he died in 2000, he was recognized as one of the finest Canadian poets of the 20th century. He had written more than 40 books and had won numerous awards including two Governor General's Awards for poetry.
"It all happened in that house," [Jean] Baird said. "Al wrote that house in the Canadian canon. I think the A-frame is such a special place."
Another element desperately needed to save the home is volunteers, local volunteers in particular.
If enough local people get behind the project, it is almost guaranteed success.
It will take a lot of time, effort and, yes, money, but preserving Purdy's literary legacy to us will be well worth the effort..
Article ID# 1184219
More to come!
Come back soon!