Timothy Findley

In 1959, he married actress and photographer Janet Reid but the union lasted only three months, ending in a divorce.

In 1962, he met writer William Whitehead while working as an art’s reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. William became his partner and collaborated with him on several documentary projects in 1970s. The two remained devoted companions until Findley’s death in 2002.

He was born in a well-to-do family in Toronto to Allan Gilmour Findley, a stockbroker, and his wife Margaret Maude Bull. He was raised in an affluent neighborhood in Toronto in the Rosedale district.

He attended boarding school at St. Andrews College but poor health forced him to give up his formal education after the ninth grade. He went forth to learn arts, dance and acting and had a flourishing career as an actor for a brief time.

In 1950s, he joined the Stratford Festival company (a Shakespeare production), which organized annual theatre festivals. He acted together with Sir Alec Guinness and hence appeared on the English and American stage.

He played ‘Peter Pumpkin’ in ‘Sunshine Sketches’ which was the television adaptation of Stephen Leacock’s ‘Sunshine sketches of a little town’.

In 1970s, he collaborated with writer Bill Whitehead on several documentary projects including the television mini-series based on Pierre Berton’s book ‘The National Dream’.

In 1960s, he published his first short story in a Canadian literary magazine, ‘Tamarack Review’. After the publication and encouragement by a close friend, he took to writing more seriously, and evolved as an excellent writer.

In 1985, he was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada. He was also a founding member of the Writer’s union of Canada. Furthermore, he was given the president-ship of the Canadian chapter of PEN International.

His famous works include ‘The Wars’ (1977), ‘Famous last words’ (1981), ‘Not wanted on the voyage’ (1984), ‘Dinner along the Amazon’ (1984), ‘The telling of lies’ (1986), ‘Stones’ (1988), ‘Inside Memory: pages from a writer’s notebook’ (1990), ‘Any time at all and other stories’ (1993), and the novels ‘Headhunter’ (1993), and ‘ The piano man’s daughter’ (1995) and ‘Pilgrim’ (1999).

His first two novels, ‘The last of the crazy people’ (1967) and ‘the butterfly plague’ (1969) were originally published in Britain and the United States after being rejected by Canadian publishers. These both novels are set in Southern California. These are very well-written with varied vocabulary and descriptive style of writing.

In the early 1970s, he wrote radio and television scripts and a play ‘Can you see me yet?’ It was followed by the release of two of his most acclaimed novels, ‘The Wars’ (1977), which was later adapted into a film in 1981, and ‘Famous last words’ (1981).

He authored numerous plays. The most famous of them all being ‘Elizabeth Rex’ which debuted at the Stratford Festival of Canada. This play was a big hit and won many accolades for him. ‘Shadows’ was his last completed work among plays.

In 1998, ‘From stone orchard’, a collection of some of Findley’s Harrowsmith columns. It is a memoir of Findley's life at Stone Orchard, Cannington, southern Ontario, where he lived with his partner William Whitehead.