Which would you choose as #1?

A18

Margaret Patricia Eaton

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

In 2008, Trevor J. Adams and Stephen Clare were enjoying coffee at the Trident Café and Bookstore in Halifax while debating the merits of their favourite Atlantic Canadian authors. Adams was weighing in on the side of Thomas Raddall, the Liverpool, N. S. author of historical fiction while Clare was backing Alistair MacLeod, author of the 1999 prize winning novel, No Great Mischief.

The argument led freelance journalist and radio host Clare to think about an interview he'd done with musical journalist Bob Mersereau about his book, The Top 100 Canadian Albums and say to Adams, editor of Halifax Magazine, "What if we..."

That "what if" question was the genesis for Atlantic Canada's 100 Greatest Books, compiled by Adams and Clare and published by Nimbus in October, 2009. It's a handsome volume, all 229 pages of it, printed on heavy gloss paper with full colour reproductions of the covers of each of the one hundred selected books.

In addition to being an attractive volume, the book makes a good read for those who love books, as it is more than a catalogue. Adams and Clare have provided a synopsis of each, along with critical reviews, comments on its place in literary history, a brief author biography and awards. Did you know that Atlantic books have won The Governor General's Literary Award, The Canadian Authors Association Prize, the International Dublin Literary Award, the Giller, the Prix Goncourt and the Pulitzer; have been adapted for theatre, film and television, and translated into more than 20 languages? Clare, who hails from Montreal, says "Atlantic Canadians have to stand up and blow their own horn and celebrate," which is what this book does.

But if Adams and Clare couldn't agree about the relative merits of two authors, how did they manage to deal with the 10,000 books published in Atlantic Canada over 200 years?

First they had to determine what made a book Atlantic Canadian. Obviously books written or published here qualified, but they also decided to include significant books about the region, such as John Wyndam's The Crysalids, describing a post-apocalyptic Labrador. Then they decided some books just didn't belong; cookbooks, for example. They also decided not to include poetry or plays, fearing they might get snowed under in an avalanche of prose.

Still, it was a daunting task for Adams and Clare, who enlisted the aid of everyone they knew. They e-mailed authors, critics, librarians, professors of Canadian literature, bookstore owners, four provincial premiers and, of course, readers, inviting them to list their favourites and then forward the request. This resulted in 716 replies from respondents who took the challenge seriously.

"One person submitted a list of 10 and then e-mailed the next day to say she had stayed up all night, revising her list," Adams says.

In the end, respondents cast over 7,000 ballots for 2,000 different books, which then had to be tallied up to determine the rankings.

Getting the book completed in just over a year became an all-consuming project. Adams admits to taking the manuscript on his honeymoon to Jamaica, after promising not to and Clare worked on it while vacationing in Spain.

So which books made it to the top 100? Some choices are predictable. Obviously L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables made the list, as did Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes, which won several top awards between 2007 and 2009 and is being adapted for the big screen. There's some you'll remember from high school: Ernest Buckler's The Mountain and the Valley and Hugh MacLennan's Barometer Rising. Books by New Brunswick's David Adams Richards Raymond Fraser and Antoine Maillet are included. (Maillet is Premier Shawn Graham's No. 1 choice.)

There are also relevant non-fiction titles: Harry Thurston's A Place Between the Tides: A Reflection on the Salt Marsh; Water: The Fate of our Most Precious Resource by Marc de Villiers and Daniel Paul's We Were Not the Savages: A Mi'kmaq Perspective on the Collision between European and Native American Civilization.

And the number one title, with most votes? Well, of course I'm not going to tell you. Did you think I would?

But what about Raddall and MacLeod who prompted this publication? Did their books make it into the top 100? Yes, they did. Raddall received nominations for five titles and MacLeod for three. Were they in the top 10? I'm not telling that either, although when Adams and Clare submitted their own personal top 10 in a sidebar, Clare listed The Republic of Nothing (Lesley Choyce) while Adams' favourite was Sailing Around the World Alone (Joshua Slocum)

Atlantic Canada's 100 Greatest Books makes a timely gift for the reader on your list or for yourself and is sure to generate discussion among book club members for years to come. It's published by Nimbus (Halifax) and retails for $24.95. You can also visit the interactive website: www.top100books.ca and continue the discussion.