- John Marlyn
John Marlyn (
April 2 ,1912 -November 16 ,2005 ) was a Hungarian-born Canadianwriter who also used thepseudonym Vincent Reid when writingscience fiction .Marlyn was born in
Nagybecskerek , Hungary, but grew up inWinnipeg, Manitoba , after arriving in Canada as an infant. During the depression-era 1930s, he found work as a script reader for a film studio inEngland . Just beforeWorld War II , he returned to Canada and worked as a writer for the Canadian government inOttawa . He also taught creative writing atCarleton University 1963-1967.Marlyn received a
Beta Sigma Phi award for his first novel, a tale of poorimmigrant life during the 1920s, set in Winnipeg's North End.Marlyn's papers were acquired by the
University of Calgary in 1987.He lived in the
Canary Islands until he died of a heart attack.Excerpt
:"The English," he whispered. "Pa, the only people who count are the English. Their fathers got all the best jobs. They're the only ones nobody ever calls foreigners. Nobody ever makes fun of their names or calls them, 'Baloney-eaters,' or laughs at the way they dress or talk.” “Nobody,” he concluded bitterly, "cause when you're English it's the same as being Canadian." —"Under the Ribs of Death"
Works
* "
Under the Ribs of Death " (1957)
* "Putzi, I Love You, You Little Square" (1981)
* "The Baker's Daughter" (2000)References
* "The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature", 2nd ed., pp. 742-743.
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