Fifth business
Davies, Robertson
Adult Fiction DAVIES

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Novelist, playwright, and journalist, Robertson Davies is one of Canada's best-known writers internationally. He grew up in Kingston, Ontario, where he later attended Queen's University. In 1938, he received a B.Litt. from Oxford, and then joined the Old Vic Theatre Company. Returning to Canada in 1940, he served as editor of the influential publication Saturday Night until 1942. For the next 20 years he was editor of the Peterborough Examiner in Ontario, where he wrote the Samuel Marchbanks Sketches. From 1953 to 1971 he served on the board of the Stratford Festival. In 1963 Davies became the first master of Massey College, a graduate college at the University of Toronto. In the 1970s Davies published the Deptford Trilogy - Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972), and World of Wonders (1975). Beginning in 1981, Davies published the Cornish Trilogy - The Rebel Angels (1981), What's Bred in the Bone (1985), and The Lyre of Orpheus (1988). These novels, with their academic setting, reveal Davies's awareness of Canada's intellectual and artistic sophistication. (Bowker Author Biography) William Robertson Davies was born in Thamesville, Ontario in 1913. He taught English at the University of Toronto and was an actor, journalist, and newspaper editor before winning acclaim as a novelist with Tempest-Tost, the first of his Salterton trilogy. His most famous trilogy, The Deptford Trilogy--Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders--develops the earlier Salterton novels. The locale is a fictitious Ontario city that prizes its English tradition, including the Anglican Church and the genealogy of the old families. Robertson's novels have been translated into approximately 20 languages. His masterful story-telling encompasses such issues as evil, love, fear, tradition, and magic as he brings his characters to life with wisdom and humor. Robertson Davies died in 1995. (Bowker Author Biography) Robertson Davies (1913-1995) had three successive careers during the time he became an internationally acclaimed author: first as an actor with the Old Vic Company in England; then as publisher of "The Peterborough Ontario Examiner"; & finally as professor & first master of Massey College at the University of Toronto. With twelve novels & several volumes of essays & plays to his credit, Davies was the first Canadian to be inducted to the American Academy & Institute of Arts & Letters. His last novel, "The Cunning Man" (Viking 1995), was a national bestseller. (Publisher Provided)