I have found that one of the major benefits of being a book dealer is that I am constantly learning. New authors, new subjects, new illustrators, etc., and sometimes reacquaintances. It keeps my brain nimble – a good thing. And it is fun.
The newest “new thing” is the author Budge Wilson. First of all, I have never heard of a person called “Budge”, and I picked up the book not knowing if the author was male or female. The picture on the back cover gave me the quick answer.
If this book was in the middle of a shelf of novels, I likely would not have picked it up. But, it was in with small print, softcover books related to the Maritimes. It stood out and I wondered why it was there.
I looked at the front blurb and then at the back blurb to see the bit about the author. What stood out was “she lives in Hubbards, Nova Scotia.” Across St. Margarets Bay, from our place, we look at Hubbards.
Almost ready to buy. Then to the title page and saw that the publisher was “Anansi”.
The Leaving; Stories by Budge Wilson; Anansi, Toronto, 1990.
That did it. I have not seen many books published by Anansi, Toronto, but it is a good smaller press focusing on Canadian authors. They published many Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje titles.
So, bought the book went home, put her name on the search bar and there was her Wikipedia page. A good sign! Here is what “they” had to say about Budge Wilson.
Budge Marjorie Wilson CMONS(née Archibald; 1927 –2021) was a Canadian writer, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Wilson started her career in writing in her fifties. Her first book was published in 1984, when she was 56. In total she wrote more than thirty books, mostly children's books, won several awards, and was a recipient of the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia.
Wilson also authored “The Leaving”, a collection of short stories that won first prize in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Literary Competition for Adult Short Story in 1991. It won the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award and the City of Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction that same year, and went on to be listed as one of "The 75 best children's books of the last 25 years" by the American Library Association in 1994. It was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in the Canada–Caribbean Region.
(Hey – that is this book!)
Wilson received honorary degrees from Dalhousie University (2010) and Mount Saint Vincent University (2012).
After living in Peterborough, Ontario, for 33 years, Wilson and her husband went back to Nova Scotia in 1989 and resided in Northwest Cove on St. Margarets Bay. During her later years, they moved into a retirement facility in Halifax.
I had to laugh when I read that she lived not in Hubbards, but in Northwest Cove. We have to look more to the left across the Bay to see it. I guess the publishers insisted she use the booming metropolis of Hubbards as her hometown!
Paper clipped inside the back cover was a folded newspaper with Budge’s picture looking out.
Who ever heard of the “Nova Scotian?”
Headed up “Best Kept Secret” – no wonder I had never heard of her before. Not my fault.
The article shed much more light and warmth about the author. I quote “Wilson’s work is so compelling, so perceptive that it has cracked the elusive American market. In fact, Wilson is better known in some parts of the United States than she is in Canada.”
The article concludes with a nice nod from a well known Canadian writer. For many years she worked as a fitness instructor, freelance photographer, book illustrator, teacher and editor. Most of that happened while she lived in Peterborough – near the home of novelist Margaret Laurence with whom she became friends. Laurence had seen enough to write the following in a supporting letter to the Canada Council: “There is absolutely no doubt in that Wilson’s stories rank among the finest being produced in our country…They speak to us all….”
Now my book dealer self takes over – do I have a nice little book here, maybe? I go onto Abebooks to see how many copies of The Leaving are out there for sale. The first thing I noticed was that it was reprinted often by various publishers, so there was a good deal of interest in the book. Only 3 copies of the first edition by Anansi, two of which were paperbacks and not in good shape and low priced, but the lowest price was a hard cover printing for $10 that was a dilapidated ex-library book.
What often happened in the publishing world was the decision to go to market with a paperback but print a limited number of hard covered books for public libraries. This was before libraries would handle lowly paperbacks. Thus, most hardcovers are gone or in worthless condition. Here I am with an extremely scarce fine copy of the first edition of her best-known work.
Now priced accordingly. (A benefit of learning new things.)