Historical Association hears the story of writer Roy

Westmount has a library, which prides itself on having not only an excellent choice of English books, but also a good selection of French books. This library, which is located adjacent to a Flower Conservatory, pleased me very much with its spacious reading rooms, comfortable armchairs, and charming librarians who were always attentive to the needs of the patrons. Here, one can breathe the perfume of flowers coming through the doors opening unto the hothouses, while a soft light falls through the Tudor-style windows. —Gabrielle Roy

Dr. Sophie Marcotte, assistant professor in the Department of French Studies at Concordia University and editor of Mon Cher Grand Fou, a collection of letters written by Canadian writer Gabrielle Roy to her husband, began her talk to the Westmount Historical Association by quoting this description of our local library.

These words were written by Roy in 1941 after the writer had settled into Westmount by renting a room on Dorchester Street. She was starting to develop ideas for her first novel, Bonheur d’occasion (The Tin Flute) which, when published in 1945, thrust her forward into the limelight as a new leading writer of Quebec and Canada.

Over 20 visitors who came especially to learn more about their favorite author joined the regular, faithful members of the Historical Association in the Westmount Room of the Westmount Public Library on Thursday evening April 19.

Dr. Marcotte described the events leading up to the author’s decision to follow writing as a career. She described Roy’s early childhood growing up in St. Boniface, Manitoba, where she was born in 1909, and pointed out how childhood experiences provided the bases for most of her novels. Roy experienced poverty from the age of six, when her father was dismissed from a government job with no pension to provide for his family. In her first novel, The Tin Flute, Roy describes how a family copes with living in poverty.

Her inclination to write, could have been inspired by growing up listening to her mother tell wonderful stories. Her mother was also influential in directing her to attend teacher college. After graduating in 1929, when she was just 20 years old, Roy began to teach. First in the small village of Marchand, then in Cardinal, followed by seven years in L’Institute Provencher, a boy’s school in St. Boniface. She later recalled her teaching experience in Ces enfants de ma vie, (Children of My Heart), published in 1977, and La Petite Poule d’Eau (Where Nests the Water Hen), published in 1950

The attentive audience also learned that it was by putting money aside from her teaching salary that Roy could fulfill her dream of going to Europe to study acting. Roy’s experiences during the 18 months she spent in Paris and London attending various Theatre Schools, is detailed in her autobiography La Détresse et l’enchantement ” (Enchantment and Sorrow) published in 1984, a year after her death.

While staying in a cottage in the English countryside, Roy made the decision to devote her life to writing, although it was then 1939 and she was forced to return to Canada because of the outbreak of war.

Roy arrived in Montreal in April, 1939. She began to write for the weekly newspaper Le Jour and sold a few articles she had written in Europe to the Revue Populaire. She befriended Henri Girard who was the literary editor of La Revue Moderne, and wrote short stories for them on a regular basis from 1939 to 1940. He helped her gain access to the magazine Bulletin des agriculteurs for which she wrote articles for five years. In researching these articles she put together factual, historical and journalistic elements. Her research took her to the Gaspe, Abitibi, the Côte Nord, western Canada, as well as many parts of Montreal.

Living in Westmount

Inspired by her reporting experiences and also by her habit of walking along the streets of Westmount and the neighbouring St. Henri, Roy wrote her first draft of Bonheur d’occasion while boarding in rooming houses on Dorchester Street, first on the south side and then on the north side at number 4059. Dr. Marcotte suggested that Roy liked the tree-lined street in this English part of Montreal because it reminded her of her time spent in London when she had decided to become a writer.

When Bonheur d’occasion, was first published in 1945 in two volumes, it received first prize from the l’Academie canadienne-francaise in the fall of 1946. In the spring of 1947, the English translation was selected as Book of the Month by the famous Literary Guild of America, and in the same year, in December, was awarded the Prix Femina from France. Roy was awarded the Lorne Pierce medal by the Royal Society of Canada and the first of three Governor General’s medals.

The success of this, her first novel, overshadowed Roy’s later accomplishments. The English translation received as much acclaim as the original French version. Her novel became an instant classic, a major landmark of Quebec literature as well as Canadian. Her work has always been recognized as bridging the two cultures.

- Doreen Lindsay is president of the Westmount Historical Association.

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