John Glassco's Richer World : Memoirs of Montparnasse

Montreal-born John Glassco (1909-1981) was described in one obituary as a "poet, translator, and pornographer, and an elegant memoirist of the Paris years." He is best remembered for his fictive autobiography, Memoirs of Montparnasse (1970). He was also the author of four volumes of verse -- The Deficit Made Flesh (1958), A Point of Sky (1964), Selected Poems (1971) and Montreal (1973 --, and a number of pornographic pulp novels. The author argues that Glassco invested his 'Memoirs of Montparnasse' with literary subterfuge, transforming it from a memoir into an autobiographical novel. The manuscript on which the published book is based was written by Glassco during his convalescence from tuberculosis in Montreal's Royal Victoria Hospital after his return home from Paris, where he live from 1928 to 1932 . The author points out that fictional transformation pervades the published book compared to the manuscript to the degree that it cannot be considered a memoir.

Toronto, ON

ECW Press

1988

121p.

en

1-55022-037-3