Hugh Hood
Encyclopedia
Hugh John Blagdon Hood, OC
(b in Toronto
, Ontario
30 Apr 1928 – d in Montreal
, Quebec
1 Aug 2000) was a Canadian
novelist, short story
writer, essayist and university professor.
Hood wrote 32 books: 17 novels including the 12-volume New Age novel sequence
(influenced by Marcel Proust
and Anthony Powell
), several volumes of short fiction, and 5 of nonfiction. He taught English literature at the Université de Montréal
. In the early 1970s he and fellow authors Clark Blaise
, Raymond Fraser
, John Metcalf
and Ray Smith formed the well-known Montreal Story Tellers Fiction Performance Group, which popularized the public reading of fiction in Canada. In 1988, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
.
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
(b in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
30 Apr 1928 – d in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
1 Aug 2000) was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
novelist, short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
writer, essayist and university professor.
Hood wrote 32 books: 17 novels including the 12-volume New Age novel sequence
Novel sequence
A novel sequence is a set or series of novels which share common themes, characters, or settings, but where each novel has its own title and free-standing storyline, and can thus be read independently or out of sequence.-Definitions:...
(influenced by Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
and Anthony Powell
Anthony Powell
Anthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975....
), several volumes of short fiction, and 5 of nonfiction. He taught English literature at the Université de Montréal
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal is a public francophone research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises thirteen faculties, more than sixty departments and two affiliated schools: the École Polytechnique and HEC Montréal...
. In the early 1970s he and fellow authors Clark Blaise
Clark Blaise
Clark Blaise, OC is a Canadian author.Born in Fargo, North Dakota, he currently lives in San Francisco, California. He has been married since 1963 to writer Bharati Mukherjee. They have two sons. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, Blaise was also the director of...
, Raymond Fraser
Raymond Fraser
Raymond Fraser is a Canadian author.Born in Chatham, New Brunswick, Fraser attended St Thomas University where in his freshman year he played on the varsity hockey and football teams, and in his junior year was co-editor with John Brebner of the student literary magazine Tom-Tom...
, John Metcalf
John Metcalf (writer)
John Metcalf, CM is a Canadian writer, editor and critic.-Biographical:Metcalf was born in Carlisle, England on November 12, 1938. His father, Thomas Metcalf, was a clergyman and his mother, Gladys Moore Metcalf, was a teacher. Metcalf immigrated to Canada in 1962 at the age of 24. It was in...
and Ray Smith formed the well-known Montreal Story Tellers Fiction Performance Group, which popularized the public reading of fiction in Canada. In 1988, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
.
Novels
- White Figure, White GroundWhite Figure, White GroundWhite Figure, White Ground is the first novel by Canadian author Hugh Hood. It was first published in 1964 by Ryerson Press. One of the main themes in the novel surrounds libertinism, as the main character attempts to distinguish between libertinism which he despises and an acknowledgment of his...
(1964) - The Camera Always Lies (1967)
- A Game of Touch (1970)
- You Cant Get There From Here (1972)
- Five New Facts about Giorgione (1987)
The New Age Series
- The Swing in the GardenThe Swing in the GardenThe Swing in the Garden, first published in 1975 by Oberon, is the fifth novel by Canadian author Hugh Hood and the first in his ambitious 12-novel cycle, The New Age.-Plot and setting:...
(1975) - A New AthensA New AthensA New Athens, first published in 1977, is the sixth novel by Canadian author Hugh Hood and the second in his 12-novel cycle, The New Age.-Setting:The book is set in southeastern Ontario, Canada in the year 1966...
(1977) - Reservoir Ravine (1979)
- Black and White Keys (1982)
- The Scenic Art (1984)
- The Motor Boys in Ottawa (1986)
- Tony's Book (1988)
- Property & Value (1990)
- Be Sure to Close Your Eyes (1993)
- Dead Men's Watches (1995)
- Great Realizations (1997)
- Near Water (2000)
Short stories
- Flying a Red Kite (1962)
- Around the Mountain: Scenes from Montreal Life (1967)
- The Fruit Man, The Meat Man & The Manager (1971)
- Dark Glasses (1976)
- Selected Stories (1978)
- None Genuine Without This Signature (1980)
- August Nights (1985)
- A Short Walk in the Rain (1989)
- The Isolation Booth (1991)
- You'll Catch Your Death (1992)
Non-Fiction
- Strength Down the Centre: The Jean Beliveau Story (1970)
- The Governor's Bridge is Closed (1973)
- Scoring: The Art of Hockey [Illus. Seymour Segal] (1979)
External links
- The Isolation Booth
- Special Collections HUGH HOOD
- Hugh Hood entry at The Canadian Encyclopedia
- Hugh Hood entry at Knowledgerush
Additional reading
- Keith, W.J. Canadian Odyssey A Reading of Hugh Hood's The New Age / Le nouveau siècle (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002).
Bibliographies
- "A Bibliography of Works by and on Hugh Hood," in Before the Flood: Our Examination round His Factification for Incamination of Hugh Hood's Work in Progress, edited by J.R. (Tim) Struthers, Downsview, Ontario, ECW Press, 1979, and "Hugh Hood: An Annotated Bibliography" also by Struthers, in The Annotated Bibliography of Canada's Major Authors: Volume Five, edited by Robert Lecker and Jack David, Downsview, Ontario, ECW Press, 1984
- "Hood, Hugh (1928--)" by Allan Weiss, in his A Comprehensive Bibliography of English-Canadian Short Stories, 1950–1983, Toronto, ECW Press, 1988 .
Critical studies
- "Grace: The Novels of Hugh Hood" by Dennis Duffy, in Canadian Literature 47, 1971.
- "An Interview with Hugh Hood," in World Literature Written in English, (11)1, 1972, and "An Interview with Hugh Hood," in Le Chien d'or/The Golden Dog, 3, 1974, both by Victoria G. Hale.
- "An Interview with Hugh Hood," in Journal of Canadian Fiction (2)1, 1973, and "Space, Time and the Creative Imagination" in Journal of Canadian Fiction, 3(1), 1974, both by Pierre Cloutier.
- "Hugh Hood and His Expanding Universe," in Journal of Canadian Fiction, 3(1), 1974, and "Formal Coherence in the Art of Hugh Hood" in Studies in Canadian Literature, 2, 1977, both by Kent Thompson.
- "An Interview with Hugh Hood" by Robert Fulford, in The Tamarack Review, 66, 1975.
- "Near Proust and Yonge: That's Where Hugh Hood Grew Up and Why He's Making a 12-Novel Bid for Immortality" by Linda Sandler, in Books in Canada, December 1975.
- The Comedians: Hugh Hood and Rudy Wiebe by Patricia A. Morley, Toronto: Clarke Irwin, 1977.
- "Hugh Hood and John Mills in Epistolary Conversation" by Hugh Hood and John Mills, in The Fiddlehead, 116, 1978.
- "Hugh Hood" in Profiles in Canadian Literature, edited by Jeffrey M. Heath, vol. 2, Toronto: Dundurn, 1980, and "A Secular Liturgy: Hugh Hood's Aesthetics and Around the Mountain," in Studies in Canadian Literature, 10, 1985, both by J. R. (Tim) Struthers.
- "The Case for Hugh Hood," in An Independent Stance: Essays on English-Canadian Criticism and Fiction, Erin, Ontario: Porcupine's Quill, 1991, and "The Atmosphere of Deception: Hugh Hood's 'Going Out as a Ghost'," in Writers in Aspic, edited by John Metcalf, Montreal: Véhicule Press, 1988, and "Hugh Hood," in A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada, Toronto: ECW, 1989, all by W. J. Keith.
- "Hugh Hood's Celebration of the Millennium's End" by Geoff Hancock, in Quill and Quire, November 1980.
- "Field of Vision: Hugh Hood and the Tradition of Wordsworth" by Anthony John Harding, in Canadian Literature, 94, 1982.
- "`Incarnational Art': Typology and Analogy in Hugh Hood's Fiction" by Barry Cameron, in The Fiddlehead, 133, 1982.
- On the Line: Readings in the Short Fiction of Clark Blaise, John Metcalf and Hugh Hood by Robert Lecker, Downsview, Ontario: ECW, 1982.
- "Tradition and Post-Colonialism: Hugh Hood and Martin Boyd" by Diana Brydon, in Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, 15(3), 1982.
- "Faith and Fiction: The Novels of Callaghan and Hood" by Barbara Helen Pell, in Journal of Canadian Studies, 18(2), 1983.
- Hugh Hood by Keith Garebian, Boston: Twayne, 1983.
- "Hugh Hood's Edenic Garden: Psychoanalysis Among the Flowerbeds" by Patrick J. Mahony with a reply by Hugh Hood, in Canadian Literature, 96, 1983.
- Hugh Hood and His Works, Toronto: ECW, 1985, and "Onward to the New Age," in Books in Canada, October 1990, both by Keith Garebian.
- Pilgrim's Progress: A Study of the Short Stories of Hugh Hood by Susan Copoloff-Mechanic, Toronto: ECW, 1988.
- "On the Trail of Hugh Hood: History and the Holocaust in Black and White Keys" by Dave Little, in Essays on Canadian Writing, 44, 1991.
- "Changing Metropolis and Urbs Eterna: Hugh Hood's 'The Village Inside'" by Simone Vauthier, in her Reverberations: Explorations in the Canadian Short Story, Concord, Ontario: House of Anansi, 1993.
- Canadian Classics: An Anthology of Short Stories, Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1993, and How Stories Mean, Erin, Ontario: Porcupine's Quill, 1993, both edited by John Metcalf and J. R. (Tim) Struthers.
- "A Scriptible Text" by John Mills, in Essays on Canadian Writing 50, 1993.
- "The History of Art and the Art of History: Hugh Hood's Five New Facts About Giorgione" by Alex Knoenagel, in Mosaic, 27(1), 1994.
- The Influence of Painting on Five Canadian Writers: Alice Munro, Hugh Hood, Timothy Findley, Margaret Atwood, and Michael Ondaatje by John Cooke, Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen, 1996.