ANOTHER WRITING GIG - AND I’M SO GRATEFUL TO TOM THOMSON

There are times around Birch Hollow, when Suzanne realizes her writer/husband is in the murky mid-zone funk, between inspiration and lack thereof. A sort of self imposed hiatus, or internal exile, from projects that could and should be completed, yet holding-out for something remarkable. Something that will revitalize an interest in an area that offers a challenge and untold adventure. If I have any bouts of depression at all, it’s when I don’t have a big project coming to fruition.

When my son Robert phoned me from Toronto, one day last fall, and asked if I wanted him to pick up Roy MacGregor’s latest book on Canadian landscape artist, Tom Thomson, I knew it was an important re-commencement of one of my favorite research projects. It was only a few days earlier that I had emailed Roy about getting a signed copy, of “Northern Light - The Enduring Mystery of Tom Thomson, And The Woman Who Loved Him,” (Random House Canada) if he was planning a visit up to Huntsville......where he has deep family roots that stretch all the way into the history of Algonquin Park. He said he’d let me know but Robert came through first, with a signed first edition. An excellent read by a talented, accomplished Canadian author/historian.

It was an important book to add to my Thomson reference collection. I had a number of email exchanges with the author several years earlier, as he was just setting out on the book project. I was so darn happy to get the book, I had the privilege of relaying news about the release to David Silcox, (at that time in England) who I consider wrote one of the best Thomson reference books still on the market. It was the 1970's large format, fabulously illustrated “Tom Thomson, Silence of the Storm,” he co-wrote with well known Canadian artist, Harold Town.......one of the first books in my art reference collection. He said he was interested in knowing more about what MacGregor had found about Thomson’s mysterious 1917 death on Algonquin’s Canoe Lake. David is much less interested generally, in how he died, than in the ongoing, robust celebration of his art work......which does, at times, get reduced beneath the weight of investigation into the largely speculative cause of death. After years of pursuing this story, I must confess I do side with David’s point of view, and in my newly revived column series, I plan to write this year for a new publication serving Almaguin and area, there won’t be any doubt about my own true respect for Thomson’s art.......which has drawn me to Algonquin Park for years, just to look out and experience the spirit of this amazing lakeland.

My interest in Canadian art began as a kid. I was turned-on by Thomson’s reproduced landscapes in school textbooks......as well as work from the later Group of Seven artists (Thomson inspired formation of the Group but died before its official organization). The pages of full color graphics were the only characteristics of those school books I was interested in......I desperately wanted to be paddling a canoe, on the same lakes Thomson had featured in his paintings. In my mind, over so many boring classroom-bound days, I traversed all those magical lakes, Thomson as my guide. I was a proficient daydreamer. My mother and many teachers explained that daydreaming would hurt education. Baloney. I have always encouraged our boys to dream large and frequently. Hasn’t hurt them, and it didn’t harm me at all!

The second and most robust introduction into a wider Thomson study, came when I read a feature series, in a Muskoka publication, called The Weekender (circa mid 1990's), by long-time trapper and guide, Ralph Bice.....most definitely a legend in his own time. There were a number of columns about Thomson’s demise, which he believed, without question, was as the coroner, in 1917 ruled.....the result of accidental drowning. Bice criticized those writers who had suggested Thomson was instead the victim of foul play. From death, most likely caused from an unbalanced, upright “peeing over the gunnel” event, while mid-Canoe Lake, (having first imbibed a snoot full of liquor), Bice believe Thomson fell from the canoe, hit his head on the gunnel, and sank to the bottom of the Algonquin Lake. End of story. What caught my attention then, was that Judge William Little had only just passed away, and it had seemed grossly unfair to his memory, to publish this particular column, aimed at a man who couldn’t defend himself. While it was longstanding that the two didn’t agree, it just seemed at that point, a really good reason to start my own mission of discovery. I needed more to read for comparison.

An hour after I had read Bice’s assertion, that Thomson had died by peeing misadventure, I took my usual trip up to the Salvation Army Thrift Shop, in Gravenhurst, and you won’t believe the coincidence.......or, whatever would have fostered the union between myself, at that moment, and a signed, first edition hardcover, of William Little’s “Tom Thomson Mystery.” The landmark book in the Thomson investigation, that advanced the idea his death was the result of foul play. The book is full of evidence Thomson had enemies, a love interest, not to mention (after his death) a rogue body in a supposedly empty grave (according to historical record). It was this confluence of opinion between Judge Little and Ralph Bice that started my long relationship with the Thomson story. Now add the newest revelations from Roy MacGregor, revealing his family connections to the story, and intimate details about the artist’s relationship with a local woman. (First alluded to in the book he wrote, entitled “Shorelines,” a work of historical fiction, but somewhat closer to reality than we readers initially recognized).

I will be doing a more thorough review of MacGregor’s book, for an upcoming issue of a new Almaguin Publication, I’ve recently been asked to join. I’m absolutely delighted to be working on the Thomson story again. It is by far the most widely published and personally enjoyed research projects I’ve had in my 30 year career. I’ll give blog readers more information on the new publication in the near future.

As for my longstanding assertion that Gravenhurst is a great place to write.......live and work, this is as homegrown, and home-inspired, as you can get, and I hope it shows in the finished copy. Watch for updates.