George Whalley, The Legend of John Hornby

Michael DiSanto (Algoma University College)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1962

Places

Canada (Publication/ performance)
United Kingdom (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Biography (literary)

Resources

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A much-noted book when it was published simultaneously in Canada and England in 1962,

The Legend of John Hornby

returned to public attention in the first decade of the twentieth century because of its role in Elizabeth Hay’s Giller prize-winning novel

Late Nights on Air

. “Always in the background as I wrote this novel was George Whalley’s marvelous biography”, Hay writes in her acknowledgements, “a book that has stayed with me since I first read it thirty years ago” (Hay 2007, 366). Hay is one of many readers who have never forgotten the experience of reading the book.

John Hornby was born in England on September 21, 1880 and died in the barren grounds of the Canadian north on April 19, 1927. Although he lived in the north for most of his life from the age of twenty-three until

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975 words

Citation: DiSanto, Michael. "The Legend of John Hornby". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 December 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=33209, accessed 16 April 2024.]

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