Timothy Findley

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Timothy Irving Frederick Findley OC OOnt^[1] (October 30, 1930 – June 20, 2002) was a Canadian novelist and playwright.^[2] He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.^[2]

Biography

Early life

One of three sons, Findley was born in

Through Wilder, Findley became a close friend of actress Ruth Gordon, whose work as a screenwriter and playwright inspired Findley to consider writing as well.^[2] After Findley published his first short story in the Tamarack Review, Gordon encouraged him to pursue writing more actively, and he eventually left acting in the 1960s.^[2]

Findley's first two novels, The Last of the Crazy People (1967) and The Butterfly Plague (1969), were originally published in Britain and the United States after having been rejected by Canadian publishers.^[2] Findley's third novel, The Wars, was published to great acclaim in 1977 and went on to win the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction.^[2] Director Robin Phillips subsequently adapted the novel into the 1983 theatrical film The Wars.^[2]

Findley received a Governor General's Award, the

He publicly mentioned his homosexuality, passingly and perhaps for the first time, on a broadcast of the programme The Shulman File in the 1970s, taking host Morton Shulman completely by surprise.

Findley and Whitehead resided at Stone Orchard, a farm near Cannington, Ontario, and in the south of France.^[2] In 1996, Findley was honoured by the French government, who declared him a Chevalier de l'Ordre des arts et des lettres.^[2]

Findley was also the author of several dramas for television and stage.

In the final years of Findley's life, declining health led him to move his Canadian residence to Stratford, Ontario, and Stone Orchard was purchased by Canadian dancer Rex Harrington.^[5]

In 2002, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

Death

Findley died on June 20, 2002, in Brignoles, France, not far from his house in Cotignac.^[1] Tiff: A Life of Timothy Findley, a biography by Sherrill Grace, was published in 2020.^[6]

Findley and the development of his theatrical play The Stillborn Lover were profiled by Terence Macartney-Filgate in the 1992 documentary film Timothy Findley: Anatomy of a Writer.^[7]

Quotations

• "When we have stopped killing animals as though they were so much refuse, we will stop killing one another. But the highways show our indifference to death, so long as it is someone else's. It is an attitude of the human mind I do not grasp. I have no point of connection with it. People drive in such a way that you think they do not believe in death. Their own lives are their business, but my life is not their business. I cannot refrain from terrific anger when I am threatened so casually by strangers on a public road." – from 1965 journal, at p. 16 of Journeyman: Travels of a Writer.^[8]
• "A myth is not a lie, as such, but only the truth in size twelve shoes. Its gestures are wider—its voice is projected farther—its face has bolder features than reality would dare contrive." – from 1992 speech, reproduced at p. 75 of Journeyman: Travels of a Writer.^[8]

Bibliography

Novels

• The Last of the Crazy People (1967)
• The Butterfly Plague (1969)
• The Wars (1977)
• Famous Last Words (1981)
• Not Wanted on the Voyage (1984)
• Edgar Award
  , Best Paperback Original, 1989)
• Headhunter (1993)
• The Piano Man's Daughter (1995)
• Pilgrim
  (1999)
• Spadework (2001)