Wd valgardson biography of donald

Danny Thorson saw Mrs. Poorwilly before he stepped off the freight boat onto Black Island. She was fat and had thick, heavy arms and legs. She stood at the front of the crowd with her hands on her hips. Poorwilly will take them up to the house. Poorwilly waved her hand again, indicating a small man who was standing behind an orange wheelbarrow.

He had a round, red face, and his hair was so thin and blond that from ten feet away he looked bald.

Wd valgardson biography of donald: W.D. VALGARDSON was born in Winnipeg

Danny piled his suitcases and boxes onto the wheelbarrow. He was tired and sore from the trip to the island. The bunk had been too short. The weather had been bad.

Wd valgardson biography of donald: Born , in Winnipeg, Manitoba,

When the wheelbarrow was full, Mr. Poorwilly took his hands out of his pockets. They were twisted into two rigid pink hooks. He slipped them through two metal loops that had been nailed to the handles of the wheelbarrow, then lifted the barrow on his wrists. At the top of the first rise, Mr. Poorwilly stopped. Danny glanced back. Poorwilly was swinging cases of tinned goods onto the dock.

Her grey hair blew wildly about her face. They started off again. As there were no paths on the bare granite, Danny followed Mr. They walked along a ridge, dropped into a hollow. Poorwilly pushed. They had just reached the top when they met an elderly, wasted man who was leaning heavily on the shoulder of a young girl as he shuffled along. Danny was so surprised by the incongruity of the pair that he stared.

She looked tired, but her face was tanned and her mouth was a warm red. Her cheeks were pink from the wind. She stopped when she saw Danny. The man with her made no attempt to greet them. His breath came in ragged gasps. His dark yellow skin was pulled so tightly over his face that the bone seemed to be pushing through. His eyes protruded and the whites had turned yellow.

They started up again. Poorwilly helps Adel look after him. How are you feeling after the trip? You look green. Poorwilly twisted his head toward the dock to indicate who he meant. Poorwilly slipped his hands back into the metal loops. Used to be able to use my hands but not anymore. Getting shot was the best thing has ever happened to me.

Danny noticed a small, red flower growing from a crack in the rock. When he bent down to get a better look, he saw that the crack was filled with brown stems. He picked the flower and held it up. Poorwilly replied. They say it brings bad luck. Poorwilly left him and went back to the dock for the supplies Mrs. Poorwilly had been unloading. What Mr.

Poorwilly said was true. Despite the cold, patches of red tilled the cracks that were sheltered from the wind. The granite of the island had been weathered smooth, but there was nowhere it was truly flat. Only in scattered places did the shoreline slope gently enough to let Danny walk down to the water. To the west the thin blue line of the coast of Labrador was just barely visible.

Two fishing boats were bobbing on the ocean. There were no birds except for some large grey gulls that rose as he approached and hovered in the air until he was well past them. He would have liked to have them come down beside him so he could have touched them, but they rose on the updrafts. He reached toward them and shouted for them to come down, then laughed at himself and continued his exploring.

All the buildings were made from wood siding. Because of the rock, there were no basements. Rock foundations had been put down so the floors would be level. Most of the wd valgardson biographies of donald showed little more than traces of paint. Post office. Poorwilly said. Poorwilly to bring you back. You break a leg or crack your skull and you might have to wait two, three weeks for the weather to clear enough for a plane to come.

Danny felt chastised, but Mrs. She and Mr. Poorwilly spent all during supper asking him about the mainland. As they talked, Mrs. Poorwilly fed her husband from her plate. He sat with his hands in his lap. There were no directions given or taken about the feeding. Both Mr. Poorwilly were anxious to hear everything he had to tell them about the mainland.

Somebody gets hurt, everybody knows about it. They can keep track.

Wd valgardson biography of donald: W. D. Valgardson (Bill), born

Last month the radio said Emily died in the sanatorium. After that, everything will be OK. Danny started on his dessert. The statement caught him off guard. I only caught a glimpse of her, but she seemed to be very pretty. She works hard. Danny tried not to show his embarrassment. If her spelling is good and she learned to type, she could get a government job.

No use making plans until we see what the winter brings. Poorwilly turned to his wife for confirmation. Poorwilly nodded as she scraped the last of the pudding from the dish and fed it to her husband. They used to ward off evil by choosing a villager to be king for a year. Then so the bad luck of the old year would be done with, they killed him in the spring.

A woman, food, gifts, everything, since it was only for a year. Then when the first flowers bloomed, they killed him. Poorwilly asked. Poorwilly and I rode on a train for our honeymoon. I remember it just like yesterday. Poorwilly told him about their train ride until it was time to go to bed. After Danny was in bed, Mr. Poorwilly stuck his head through the curtain that covered the doorway.

The next day Mrs. Poorwilly had everyone in the village over to meet Danny. As fast as Danny met the women and wd valgardson biographies of donald, he forgot their names. Poorwilly and Danny were the only men until Adel brought Sick Jack. Sick Jack looked even thinner than he had the day before. The yellow of his skin seemed to have deepened.

After a few minutes, he fell into a doze and his daughter covered him with a blanket she had brought. Adel blushed and looked at the floor. If you wanted, you could come and see them. Adel mumbled her thanks and went to the side of the room. She was wearing blue jeans and a heavy blue sweater that had been mended at the elbows and cuffs with green wool.

It was too large for her so Danny assumed that it had belonged to her father or one of the other men. From what Mrs. When the men went fishing, they always ran an extra line for Sick Jack. In spite of her clothing, Adel was attractive. Her hair was as black as he had remembered it and it hung in loose, natural waves. Her eyes were a dark blue. The men returned at all hours, in all kinds of weather.

Most of the men brought little news that was cheerful. The fishing had been bad. Many of them were coming home with the absolute minimum of money that would carry them until spring. In a good year, the winter fishing provided a change in diet for people sick of canned food. By the end of September the weather had turned bitterly cold. The wind blew for days at a time.

The houses rocked in the wind. Danny walked the smallest children to their homes. The few days the fishermen were able to leave the island, there were no fish. Some of the men tried to fish in spite of the weather, but most of the time they were able to do little more than clear the harbour before having to turn around. The evening Sick Jack died, Danny had gone to bed early.

Wd valgardson biography of donald: William Dempsey Valgardson (b.

The banging on the door woke him. Poorwilly got up and answered the door. Danny heard the muttered talk, then Mr. Poorwilly yelled the news to Mrs. They both dressed and left right away. Danny would have offered to go with them, but he knew that he would just be in the way so he said nothing. Poorwilly was back for breakfast. As she stirred the "wd valgardson biography of donald," she said.

We washed him and dressed him and laid him out on his bed. Poorwilly is staying with her until some of the women come to sit by the body. Once just around when I married, Mrs. Milligan died. She was Maybe older. They were just pushing her over the side when she groaned. The cold did it. She died for good the next week, but since then we like to make sure.

Danny went to the funeral. The body was laid out on the bed with a shroud pulled to its shoulders. Poorwilly held the Bible so Mr. Poorwilly could read from it. Adel sat on a kitchen chair at the foot of the bed. They lifted the body onto a stretcher they had made from a tarpaulin and a pair of oars. The villagers followed them to the harbour.

They laid the body on the bottom of the boat. Three men got in. Adel sat in the middle of the kitchen. She still had a frozen look about her face, but she was willing to talk. Danny had been sharp with him. Retrieved Victoria Times-ColonistApril 17, External links [ edit ]. Clark Blaise W. Valgardson Joy Kogawa W. David Macfarlane and Alan R.

Authority control databases. Following this volume, Valgardson published a collection of poetry that he had written in the late s and early s, In The Gutting Shed The collection received mixed reviews but nonetheless went into a second edition during its first year, a rarity in Canadian poetry. Returning to short stories, he published his third collection, Red Dustin In this book, Valgardson continued to examine the poverty and violence that exists in portions of rural Canada, while showing newfound maturity and confidence as a writer.

Continued Literary Success Valgardson's first novel, Gentle Sinnerswas published in and won the Books in Canada award as the best first novel of the year. Somewhat different from his other work, Gentle Sinners suggested a limited form of redemption and happiness in its account of a boy who flees his authoritarian parents and finds a sense of community and ethnic identity with his uncle Sigfus.

Two years after his first novel came out, Valgardson began his first stint as chair of the University of Victoria's Creative Writing Department. He held the post from to Also during this time, he served as the president of the Canadian Authors Association, from to Beginning in the mids, Valgardson began writing Books for children.

Valgardson revisits the setting of his early life in Thora children's book that culminates in the unlikely heroism of a young boy named Thor. While visiting his grandparents in a small fishing village, Thor reluctantly abandons his favorite television programs to help his grandfather on Lake Winnipegwhere he discovers the selflessness and courage to save a drowning man.

Though decidedly redemptive, Valgardson's evocative depiction of traditional Icelandic Canadian culture and engaging dialogue are consistent with his many other works. Valgardson published a number of other Books for children, including the fairy tale—inspired Sarah and the People of Sand Riverthe short-story collections Garbage Creek, and Other Stories and The Divorced Kids Club, and Other Storiesand the young-adult novel Frances He continued to emphasize rural settings at a time when Canada's rural economy—agriculture, fishing, and natural resources—were continuing to take a back seat to mechanization and an urban-based economy.

Valgardson remained with the faculty at the University of Victoria until Before his retirement, he also served his second stint as the chair of the Creative Writing Department, from until Valgardson continued to make his home in Victoria in retirement, though it was unclear if he could continue to write. As a writer, Valgardson found inspiration in his Icelandic ancestry as well as the rural Canadian landscapes where he grew up and taught.

Thus, many of his Books are set in harsh northern environments. In addition to being influenced by Icelandic storytelling traditions, Valgardson is often compared with Russian writers, and he admitted that Anton Chekhov was an influence on his work. The author believes that his strong Lutheran, conservative background gave rise to an authoritative tone of voice in his writings.

Thematic Constancy Critics have noted that the themes of tragedy and isolation are typical of many of Valgardson's works, especially in Books targeted at adults. While Gentle Sinners features some guarded optimism, the author's preferred themes dominate, and he also admitted that as a writer, theme is more important than plot to him. Even most of the poetry found in In the Gutting Shed is parallel, in setting and theme, to Valgardson's fiction.

Many of his Books for children focus on his dominant theme in a slightly different way. When Red Dust was published, some reviewers of the book took Valgardson to task for not striking out in new directions stylistically and for not attempting to deal with new and different themes. Writers' universes may become more elaborate, but they do not necessarily become essentially different.

When she runs away, she is guided and cared for by the spirits of a Cree man and woman, who intervene on her behalf because her grandparents, now deceased, took care of the couple during a smallpox epidemic. Quill and Quire contributor Anne Louise Mahoney described Sarah and the People of Sand River as a "haunting tale, skillfully written, and with a powerful ending.

In the first title, Valgardson deals with themes from absent fathers to protecting nature in what Booklist 's Lauren Peterson describes as an "offbeat collection of eight short stories. In his popular collection The Divorced Kids Club, Valgardson presents an unusual group of young protagonists, from a computer genius and budding entrepreneur to a girl who wants to be a trucker.

Contrary to the implication of the title, not all the kids are from divorced families, though all of the stories in this "appealing collection [are] loosely based on the theme of the outsider," according to Booklist 's Debbie Carton. Valgardson returned to novel-length wd valgardson biography of donald with Frances, published in Set in modern-day Manitoba, Frances explores three generations of strong females.

The book focuses primarily on young Frances Sigurdson, who is curious about her family's past, especially about her father's mysterious disappearance. Cover art by Fiona Smythe. Valgardson accepts comparisons to authors such as Anton Chekhov. I speak out of that environment. Writing does not come easily for Valgardson. He goes through multiple rewrites and uses "every device available," as he told Jackel.

One device he avoids, however, Frances is intrigued by an old journal she finds in a trunk and, despite her grandmother's admonition, she attempts to translate the Icelandic text and uncover the story of her family's past. Cover art by Julia Bell. The first person gives the writer the temptation to fall into writing a summary rather than a story that needs to be dramatized.

Also, my stories are set in a very small locale which most readers haven't experienced. That requires a very authoritative tone. I also have a strong Lutheran, and conservative, background that needs to make the statement of belief that the omniscient voice has. Valgardson once commented: "When I was a child, I was an avid reader. The rumor was that I'd read every book in town.

When I went to university, I discovered a writing club. Two of the English professors, Dr. Walter Swayze and Prof. Bob Hallstead, acted as our workshop leaders. They taught us how to analyze our writing and the writing of other workshop members.