Canada's Greatest Storytellers: 1980-1990

These were years of steady progress in Canadian writing, with major names like Davies, Laurence, Mitchell, Callaghan and MacLennan still writing, and new authors emerging. The most prominent was Margaret Atwood, who was to establish a huge international presence. Leonard Cohen remained a larger than life character. Yves Beauchemin's Le Matou ( The Alley Cat) became a world-wide best seller, while Quebec separation continued to threaten Pierre Trudeau and his Tory successor Brian Mulroney. On the Prairies Guy Vanderhaeghe re-wrote Canadian history with his novels of violence on the western frontier. On a personal note, I left Macmillan in 1986 to establish Douglas Gibson Books at M & S, and to become M & S's Publisher in 1988.