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A Gentleman of Pleasure by Brian Busby is the first biography of Canada's most enigmatic literary figure, a self-described "great practitioner of deceit."
Booktryst reviews A Gentleman of Pleasure: One Life of John Glassco, Poet, Memoirist, Translator, and Pornographer:
He was, by his own admission, “an accomplished liar” and a “great practitioner of deceit.” His (now very rare book in first edition) Memoirs of Montparnasse (1970) is considered by many to be the most accurate image of Lost Generation Paris ever written yet it is, to a large degree, a memoir of convenience, the chronicle of a young Canadian ex-pat's life in Paris in the late 1920s – early 1930s as he wished it to be, with a keen eye toward writing a best-seller and settling a few old scores. It was one of a handful of autobiographical works he composed, each an exercise in apocrypha.
It's no accident that the new, one and only, must-read biography of the man is subtitled "One Life of…" rather than "The Life of…" Acclaimed Canadian poet, memoirist and translator John Glassco (1909-1981) never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
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Just now released, A Gentleman of Pleasure is the long-awaited biography of Glassco, one of the most fascinating characters of twentieth century literature in English yet one, for the most part, completely unknown. That should change with this thoroughly researched, engaging, and elegantly written book. Author Brian Busby, who has edited several literary anthologies, and is author of Character Parts: Who’s Really Who in Canadian Literature (2003) untangles the complex life and many literary deceptions of Glassco, whose career as a writer tentatively began in the 1920s and continued with fits, false starts, and time off for bouts of tuberculosis and gentleman farming until, finally, in his 50s, the late bloomer began to blossom.
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Brian Busby will be speaking at Montreal's McGill University April 7th at 6pm.
Celebrated literary translator Sheila Fischman will introduce Mr. Busby. Dr. Richard Virr, chief curator of the McGill Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections, will discuss the library’s Glassco papers.
Thursday, April 7 · 6:00pm – 8:00pm
McGill University, Leacock Building, Room 232
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