He is considered by many to be Canada's greatest novelist. And since he began writing in 1963, Timothy Findley has produced nine novels, three short story collections, two books of non-fiction and five plays -- probably his most famous being his first, "The Last of the Crazy People" and the phenomenally successful "The Piano Man's Daughter."
Now Findley's most recent novel is in the bookstores, and it is filled with multiple characters and complex themes. "Pilgrim," which he will discuss with a Salt Lake audience on Tuesday, Jan. 25, tells the compelling story of a man who cannot die.The story gives the author an opportunity to explore timeless questions of life, death, the burden of destiny and the power of the human psyche.
Deep subjects for a man who dropped out of a Canadian high school in the 10th grade to pursue a performing career. He remembers the vice principal saying, "Tiff (his nickname) is bright; he'll find the education he needs."
When Tiff went into acting, he found something he loved, and for 13 years -- from 1948 until 1961 -- he found energy on many European and North American stages, where he did a lot of Shakespeare.
But while he was acting in a British production of Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker," starring famed actress Ruth Gordon, he wrote something for her. She was so astounded by its quality that, with tears in her eyes, she told him, "You must give up acting just as fast as you can! You're a born writer!"
"This was not what I wanted to hear," Findley recalled during a telephone interview from Ontario, but Wilder agreed with Gordon, and he offered to be the young man's mentor.
So Findley got odd jobs to help support his writing, all the while showing his work to Wilder and reacting to his critiques. "Thornton Wilder was a marvelous man," said Findley, "a great, great teacher who never lied to you. When your work was terrible, he told you it was terrible and to start again. I had no university, which I regret. But Garson Kanin once said he didn't go to university, he went to Thornton Wilder, and so did I. It was wonderful!"
Findley remembers Wilder's maxim that "the wastebasket is the writer's best friend. You have to kill all
your 'darlings,' " meaning those little "gems" of thought or expression that mean a lot to the writer, but which often just confuse the reader.
Now, as he looks back, Findley "can't imagine a better preparation for being a writer than being an actor. The scene structure, the rhythms and cadences, how to get from one climax to another, then build on those to the ultimate. All that is inherent in what you do in the theatre. I learned to live my professional life speaking dialogue. When the dialogue is superb, you can't miss its cue lines. I see people speak and move in my mind, all in one line. The plot unfolds from the way the spoken words unfold."
On the other hand, writing such dialogue is difficult. "The imagination is a gift," according to Findley. "You can't really track it down, but I'm very grateful for it. Characters fall into your lap in a funny way. You make a note on the back of a cigarette package, and there is some kind of gestation that goes on. There's something aborning inside you, and it declares itself, and you have to clarify it and do it the way it asks to be done."
Even though he doesn't consider himself an intellectual, Findley engages deeply in research for each book, and he keeps stacks of notebooks in which he writes down his characters, their birthdates and "their interconnectedness."
He always starts with characters. "They bring their story with them. As they bring it, you discover all the subsidiary characters, the rooms they move through, the ways their lives touch others. It comes through a single person. Then someone has to be in jeopardy. You can't just start knocking out the words. You've got to have a story.
"There are images, and you put them down, not knowing what the payoff is going to be. In writing 'Pilgrim,' I didn't know about the 'collective unconscious,' but the book knew it. Then when I discovered it, it was like 'hallelujah! This is what it means!' Those moments are rare, but they're wonderful."
The collective unconscious is a theory devised by one of Findley's characters, psychoanalyst Carl Jung, who used it to analyze the main character of Pilgrim.
Findley also believes that successful writers must read a great deal, with one exception. "I don't dare read new novels while I'm writing one. You pick up on a voice, or find someone else who has done your novel! You may even unintentionally borrow an idea. I love knowing these books are waiting for me when I finish my novel."
Findley got the inspiration for his writing life from his growing years.
"The house was filled with books. . . . My father used to come into my bedroom and my brother's, and he would stand in the open doorway, the light behind him, and he would quote poetry to us. We were swept away by the wonderful rhythms of the poems."
Findley believes that "Books can virtually save your life, because they open up your imagination. If you have that imagination, you can survive almost anything. If you have none, you will despair very quickly, or run in circles. That is one of the great wonders of books to me."
Findley has been "very curious about people and why they do what they do," and he has loved "the world of psychiatry, because psychiatrists do what writers do -- they explore the hell and humor of an individual human being. I had a natural affinity for Carl Jung and felt him to be extraordinary. He was vile, too. But there is always that side to genius."
In the occasional creative-writing class he teaches, Findley discovers he cannot show students how to master the craft. "It's an unteachable thing. You have to learn by yourself through reading and the experience of writing. Success isn't blaring trumpets, but knowing you have created the best you can create. In that sense, I think 'Pilgrim' was a success. I knew I had fulfilled a notion I had to the best of my ability."
Findley has noticed that his publisher "is truly excited over 'Pilgrim,' " but he declines to predict its popularity. "I doubt it will make me an icon in the United States, but it should help me along the road. When Joseph Heller died, I read that hardly anyone paid any attention to his novel, 'Catch 22,' when it first appeared, then suddenly it became one of the great novels." He wouldn't mind if "Pilgrim" hit its mark with similar impact.
Findley currently sees no end to his writing career, even now that he is in his 70th year.
"I've negotiated for two more novels and another play. I just can't imagine not writing, no matter how old I am. I know you slow down, but the longer you live, the more you have to write about. The precise words don't come so easily. I use the thesaurus a lot. But there's always the one book you know you can't quite achieve. A writer can never retire until his brain retires -- and it does that on its own."
Findley will sign and discuss his book, "Pilgrim," Tuesday, Jan. 25, 7-9 p.m., Sweet Branch of the Salt Lake Library, 455 F Street. Findley's visit is sponsored by The King's English Bookstore, The Utah Humanities Council, Writers Live! At the Library and the Utah Center for the book. Several of his titles will be available that evening. For more information, call 524-8276.