LETTER / MANUSCRIPT: Typed letter signed to Penguin, with Trade Paperback Publicity Author Questionnaire.
Shields on Shields
Shields, Carol. Trade Paperback Publicity Author Questionnaire; Ca. Winter, 1991. One long leaf,
folded to make four pages; printed with Penguin’s questions and Shield’s autograph responses.
Penguin sent Shields this questionnaire in anticipation of the publication of her book, The Orange Fish
(1992). Shields fills in standard biographical information, like her address, phone number and includes
the names of her husband and children. In the second section (p.1), regarding career history, degrees and
awards, Shields writes,
1 – Grew up in Oak park, Illinois
2 – B.A. Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana ‘57
3 – MA University of Ottawa ’75
4 – Member PEN, Writers Union of Canada
5 – Prizes
1 Best Novel 1976 – Canadian Authors Association prize
2 National Magazines Award 1984,5
3 CBC Awards 1983,4
4 Best crime novel 1987
5 Marion Engel award 1990
6 Governor General’s Award short list 1987
6 (sic) Hobbies – Drama, Jane Austen, France
A question on the second page asks if Shields wanted to share any anecdotes about the process of writing
The Orange Fish, and she shares, “I wrote all these stories while on sabbatical in Paris. My intention was
to write about ageing, but I ended up writing about language and dislocation” (p.2). When questioned if
the book would be appropriate to use for educational purposes, Shields mentions that it was being used
“at my own university for a course in Existentialism!” (p.3).
Together with:
Shields, Carol. Typed letter signed, to “Maureen” at Penguin; October 8, 1991. One leaf of plain
paper, recto only, with an autograph postscript. Shields sent this letter with the questionnaire, saying, “I don’t think I’ve put down much here that will be useful, since my literary connections in the US stand pretty well at zero. (Gordon Lish did write me a sort of fan letter not long ago, but I understand he scatters these across the nation.).” Shields adds that if the Canadian Government is willing to send her to the States for publicity appearances, she might be interested in traveling to Minneapolis or Chicago. Together with a photocopy of a review of The Orange Fish that appeared in a Canadian magazine.
Shields (1935-2002) was an American-born Canadian author. It wasn’t until the 1970s when her career as a writer and an academic blossomed. She married in 1957 and in the next decade had five children. In the biography provided on her website, she explains that in 1964 she heard about a poetry competition for young writers; the cut-off age was thirty years old, and she was twenty-nine. She says she mailed her poems to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation the day before the deadline, and won the competition. She explains, “That led me into a period of about five years when I wrote poetry." After all of her children were in school, she earned her Master’s degree, in 1975.
Shields went on to teach at the University of Ottawa, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Manitoba, where she later became a chancellor in 1996. Shields published award- winning novels, short stories, poetry, plays, criticism and biography. Her first book was a collection of poetry titled, Others (1972), and followed by another book of poetry titled Intersect (1974). Her first novel was Small Ceremonies (1976); it won the Canadian Author’s Association Award. Other novels include Happenstance (1980), A Fairly Conventional Woman (1982), The Republic of Love (1992), the Pulitzer Prize winning The Stone Diarties (1993), and Unless (2002, which won the Ethel Wilson fiction prize). Shields’s fiction is marked by an attention to the details of everyday life. According to her obituary in The New York Times,
Ms. Shields had built a following with her novels and stories about ordinary people in everyday situations. ‘'Because she's a comic writer and genuinely funny, early on she was put in the 'sweet' box, where she does not belong,'' the novelist Margaret Atwood, a friend, told an interviewer. ''The fact is, there's a dark thread in everything she writes.'’
Ms. Shields once explained her writing this way: ''My novels have centered on half a dozen concerns -- the lives of women, notions of gender, the force of time, the genesis of art, synchronicity, the relationship of fiction and biography. (NYT, July 18, 2003)
Shields was also quoted in the Times describing herself as “the mother who typed.”
In addition to The Orange Fish, Shields published two other books of short stories, Various Miracles (1985) and Dressing Up for the Carnival (2000). Her plays include Departures and Arrivals (1990), Thirteen Hands (1993) and Anniversary, a comedy (1998). Her biography of Jane Austen (2001) won the Charles Taylor prize for literary non-fiction.
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