Edward Morley Callaghan[1]CCOOntFRSC (February 22, 1903 – August 25, 1990) was a Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and TV and radio personality.[2]
Callaghan's novels and short stories are marked by undertones of Roman Catholicism, often focusing on individuals whose essential characteristic is a strong but often weakened sense of self. His first novel was Strange Fugitive (1928); several short stories, novellas, and novels followed. Callaghan published little between 1937 and 1950 - an artistically dry period. However, during these years, many non-fiction articles were written in various periodicals such as New World (Toronto), and National Home Monthly. Luke Baldwin's Vow, a slim novel about a boy and his dog, was originally published in a 1947 edition of Saturday Evening Post and soon became a juvenile classic read in school rooms around the world. The Loved and the Lost (1951) won the Governor General's Award. Callaghan's later works include, among others, The Many Colored Coat (1960), A Passion in Rome (1961), A Fine and Private Place (1975), A Time for Judas (1983), Our Lady of the Snows (1985). His last novel was A Wild Old Man Down the Road (1988). Publications of short stories have appeared in The Lost and Found Stories of Morley Callaghan (1985) and in The New Yorker Stories (2001). The four-volume The Complete Stories (2003) collects for the first time 90 of his stories.
Callaghan married Loretto Dee, with whom he had two sons: Michael (born November 1931) and Barry (born 1937), a poet and author in his own right. Barry Callaghan's memoir Barrelhouse Kings (1998), examines his career and that of his father. After outliving most of his contemporaries, Callaghan died after a brief illness in Toronto at the age of 87. He was interred in Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery in Ontario.
Recognition
Callaghan often walked the Glen Road bridge near his Toronto home, as confirmed by a historic plaque
Morley Callaghan is the subject of a CBC TelevisionLife and Times episode, and the CBC mini-series, Hemingway Vs. Callaghan, which first aired in March 2003.
From 1951 until he died in 1990, the author had lived in the Rosedale, Toronto area, at 20 Dale Avenue.[6] A historic plaque at the nearby Glen Road footbridge summarizes Callaghan's noteworthy writing career and the most significant of his literary contemporaries, including Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald.[7]
Commemorative postage stamp
On September 8, 2003, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Library of Canada, Canada Post released a special commemorative series, "The Writers of Canada", with a design by Katalina Kovats, featuring two English-Canadian and two French-Canadian stamps. Three million stamps were issued. Callaghan was chosen for one of the English-Canadian stamps.[8]
That Summer in Paris: Memories of Tangled Friendships with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Some Others - 1963[9]
Winter - 1974
Plays
Turn Again Home (based on the novel They Shall Inherit the Earth, produced in New York City in 1940, and produced under the title Going Home in Toronto in 1950)
^"Following the Footsteps of Toronto's Past Greats". National Post. 30 June 2018. Retrieved 23 November 2019. Amelia Earhart, Morley Callaghan and Lester B. Pearson are among those whose past homes have been honored with blue plaques
^"Toronto's Historical Plaques". Tronto Plaques. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2019. Morley Callaghan wrote 18 novels and over 100 short stories, all about Canadians. Critically acclaimed around the world
