The Force of Vocation
The Literary Career of Adele Wiseman
Overview
Adele Wiseman was a seminal figure in Canadian letters. Always independent and wilful, she charted her own literary career, based on her unfailing belief in her artistic vision. In The Force of Vocation, the first book on Wiseman's writing life, Ruth Panofsky presents Wiseman as a writer who doggedly and ambitiously perfected her craft, sought a wide audience for her work, and refused to compromise her work for marketability.Based on previously unpublished archival material and personal interviews with publishers, editors, and writers, The Force of Vocation charts Wiseman's career from her internationally acclaimed first novel, The Sacrifice, through her near career-ending decisions to move into drama and non-fiction, to her many years as a dedicated mentor to other writers. In the process, Panofsky presents a remarkable and compelling story of the intricate negotiations and complex relationships that exist among authors, editors, and publishers.
Reviews
“Ruth Panofsky set out to produce the kind of book we very much need in Canada, an “empirical account of a literary career,” which focuses on the professional side of an author’s life rather than the personal…she succeeds in this endeavour…Ironically, what we learn from this study is less about Wiseman as a professional writer and more about Wiseman’s temperament, which was clearly shaped more by highly romanticized notions of the artist than from her actual engagement with the publishing restraints and possibilities of her time.”
Susan Rudy, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada
“This literary biography tells a deeply moving yet historically accurate ‘story of the storyteller’ that it should be a model for other scholars to embrace. It narrates one writer’s life, yet, The Force of Vocation chronicles also the general experiences of being a writer in Canada during the last half of the 20th century.”
Zeitschrift fur Kanada-Studien , 27.2, 2007
