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Chapter 2. The Publishing History and Reception of Buckler's Major Works
- Wilfrid Laurier University Press
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The Publishing History and Reception of Buckler's Major Works The account of the genesis of Buckler's production (beginning in the 1930s) and its subsequent reception in the United States and in Canada would be useful even outside of a study of textual evolution. Exploring, understanding, and confronting the reactions to Buckler's texts of his professionalenvironment (agents, editors, publishers, and critics), as well as ofhis general readership, makes it possible to assess his work not only in the light of certain philosophical and aesthetic currents, but also with respect to the tastes of his time (which vary, interestingly enough, from the United States to Canada).These tastes, and the writer's need to conform to certain trends in order to publish and to earn a living can actually account for certain choicesof subject matter, narrative approach, and even style, that many a critic through a contemporary, and therefore distortional, evaluative lens has decried. Notes for chapter 2 are on pp. 236-40. 2?_ E 30 Ernest Buckler: Rediscovery and Reassessment Finally, an account of Buckler's publishing history is representative of the evolution of the Canadian book industry, which in turn is representative of Canadian cultural history, and its double, perhaps undissociative, dimension of domination by, and resistance to, American culture in its economic, political, and social spheres. The Mountain and the Valley (1952) The Mountain and the Valley, which took Buckler over ten years to complete,1 was originally published in the United States on 27October by Henry Holt and Company, because Buckler's agent at the time was an American, Harold Ober, who also handled Faulkner and Scott Fitzgerald. In Canada, both Macmillan and McClelland and Stewart had expressed interest in the work-in-progress, but Buckler trusted his agent to help him make an impact on the substantial American market and then create an overflow in Canada through an associated domestic publisher. Jonathan Leff, the assistant editor at Henry Holt, enthusiastically wrote to Buckler what the novel meant to him: a story of the Simple Life as it is lived in Nova Scotia; a carving of characters in bold, bold relief, then bared to the most minute detail; a remembrance of things past of unusual depth; an overwhelming stream of figures of speech, images of uncanny perception; a skill of successfully mixing viewpoint —and still "writing from the inside," a wistful, sometime somber, sometime gay story of loneliness, and of Man's groping for identity.2 Clarke, Irwin had the Canadian rights to the novel but, in spite of the excellent reviews that the novel received, their promotion and marketing strategy was unenthusiastic. In a letter to his American publisher, Buckler asked if there was any way to "dent Clarke, Irwin's apathy about distribution of "The Mountain and the Valley" in Canada" and confessed his doubts as to whether there was "any way ofjolting these babies out of their Olympian indifference."3 Buckler complained that "it was ages" before the Canadian distributor "began to sprinkle around what few copies they had ordered." They did not make the books available in time for the mid-November Book Week but were [3.235.42.157] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 07:54 GMT) The Publishing History and Reception of Buckler's Major Works 31 "all sold out at the height of the Christmas trade." Buckler can be excused for looking at Mr Clarke with incredulity when the publisher assured him "with absolute solemnity, that his original order of 250for all Canada had not been really a cautious one/' particularly when Holt had sold 7,000 copies in the United States, and when novelist and critic William Bird had assured Buckler that if Macmillan of Canada had been "handling the thing it might have sold 10,000 copies" in Canada. Adding to Buckler's regret was the fact that he considered Macmillan to be "the only publishers in Canada worth a tinker's damn" and that they had been "very anxious to get Canadian rights for The Mountain and the Valley from the beginning." The rights were eventually renegotiated and McClelland and Stewart came out with a new edition in 1961. By 1972, the New Canadian Library edition had sold 28,000 copies and was in its fifth printing. Prior to its publication by Holt, several publishers had initially rejected the novel, arguing that it would fail critically and financially because of its alleged lack of action. The Atlantic Monthly Press had taken a first option...