Sarah Binks – Famous Manitoba Book
It is always an interesting case in academia. “Publish or Perish:” is the motto and byline.
Yet is rather amazing in that the once famous book which came forth from the University of Manitoba academia was not from a liberal arts source – an English or History professor of note – but rather from a Chemistry Professor of all sources.
The book in question is Sarah Binks , the author being Paul Hiebert
From the Canadian Encyclopedia
Sarah Binks, by University of Manitoba professor Paul HIEBERT, was published 1947 in Toronto. That the “Sweet Songstress of Saskatchewan” never drew breath has not prevented Hiebert’s imaginary poet from holding in thrall the hearts of those for whom she has immortalized the “Saskatchewanesque” voice in Canadian letters.
Sarah’s accomplishments are legend: founder of the influential “geo-literary” school of Canadian verse; creator of such heart-rending lyrics as “Hiawatha’s Milking”; winner of Saskatchewan’s highest poetic honour – the Wheat Pool Medal – for her epic “Up From the Magma and Back Again”; dead, tragically young, of mercury poisoning from a cracked thermometer.
Fortunately, by the time of her death her charming lyrical gifts, her sharp eye for natural detail, her acute ear for tripping metre, and her unerring sense of clinching rhyme had already secured her reputation; consider, for example, the oft-quoted opening of “My Garden”: A little blade of grass I see, / Its banner waving wild and free, / And I wonder if in time to come / ‘Twill be a great big onion.
Which of our real poets of the prairies has rivalled the verse of Hiebert’s sweet creation? Hiebert judiciously traces the complex and subtle interweaving of Binksian life and art; his definitive biography memorialized the imperishable power, beauty, and grace of the Binksian oeuvre.
http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007148
The Indextrious Reader: Canadian Book Meme – Manitoba. Margaret Laurence- A Bird In The House (Short Stories). Margaret Laurence- A Jest of God. Carol Shields- The Stone Diaries. David Godfrey- The New Ancestors. Bill Richardson- Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast … Paul Hiebert- Sarah Binks. Kate Sutherland – All in together girls (short stories). Leona Theis – The Art of Salvage. Alberta. Will Ferguson- Why I Hate Canadians (Nonfiction). Earle Birney- One Muddy Hand (Poetry). Thomas Wharton- Salamander (also …
I, Ectomorph: Choses manitobaines – This got me to thinking — Well what of Manitoba? What would the world really lack if our modest province had never existed? Had there been no Manitoba, it turns out, life in the 20th century would have been nowhere near as rich. The world of letters in particular would have suffered — not only no Margaret Laurence and no Gabrielle Roy and no Carol Shields, Ralph Connor, Paul Hiebert (or Sarah Binks) and Frederick Philip Grove, but (even worse) no Reader’s Digest …
Geranium Cat’s Bookshelf: Canadian literature meme – Manitoba Margaret Laurence- A Bird In The House (Short Stories) Margaret Laurence- A Jest of God Carol Shields- The Stone Diaries Bill Richardson- Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast Miriam Toews- A Complicated Kindness Tomson Highway- The Rez Sisters (Play) … Paul Hiebert- Sarah Binks Alberta Will Ferguson- Why I Hate Canadians (Nonfiction) Earle Birney- One Muddy Hand (Poetry) Thomas Wharton- Salamander W. P. Kinsella- Shoeless Joe Robert Kroetsch- The Studhorse Man …
Canadian Book Challenge | So Misguided – Manitoba David Bergen- The Time In Between David Godfrey- The New Ancestors Tomson Highway- The Rez Sisters (Play) Margaret Laurence- A Bird In The House (Short Stories) Margaret Laurence- A Jest of God Corey Redekop- Shelf Monkey Bill Richardson- Bachelor Brothers’ … Paul Hiebert- Sarah Binks Guy Gavriel Kay- The Summer Tree Tim Lilburn- Kill-Site (Poetry) W. O. Mitchell- Who Has Seen The Wind Sinclair Ross- As For Me and My House Kate Sutherland- All In Together Girls …
