Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Award-winning best-selling author Lawrence Scanlan will be the guest speaker at next week’s Tuesday Night at the Museum to discuss his latest book They Desire A Better Country: The Order of Canada in 50 Stories.
The book was commissioned by the Governor General to coincide with both Canada’s 150th and the 50 year anniversary of the Order of Canada. It highlights some of the remarkable individuals who have received the prestigious honour.
“The most striking thing is the range of people,” Scanlan said of compiling the 50 profiles. “Everybody from hockey players to dancers to artists to scientists to entrepreneurs. From the ultra famous to the really quiet figures.”
During his 7 p.m. talk on Tuesday, which is presented by both the L&A County Libraries and the museum, he’ll touch upon his writing process and share interesting tidbits about the subjects in his book.
Since its conception, the Order of Canada has been presented to nearly 7,000 Canadians. That made for a tall task for Raymond Chrétien (brother of former prime minister Jean Chrétien), CBC radio host Shelagh Rogers and the late Stuart McLean, host of CBC’s Vinyl Cafe, who were tasked with whittling that list down to the 50 who appear in the book. Once decided, they enlisted Scanlan to compile their profiles.
“In the first imagination of the book, I thought I’d be writing profiles that were about 1,000 words,” said Scanlan.
“That gives you a little more room. Then the book was being more closely imagined and art came to the fore and the publishers decided they don’t want 1,000 words, they want 600 or 650 words. Then it became even more challenging because you’ve got less space. So you have to pick some particular quote or story or detail or some aspect of their lives that in my mind defines them.”
He relied heavily on the research done by Kingston’s Claire Grady-Smith, who would put together 150 page documents, videos or radio clips of information on the particular subject he was writing about at the time.
“I think the book represents everybody, not just people who live in cities, but people in small towns too,” said Scanlan. “Some of the people who are profiled in the book come from very small places and had great imagination and great patience to pursue their goals. It doesn’t matter where you come from, small or large, you can still do great things.”
A journalist with four decades worth of experience and former literary editor of the Kingston Whig-Standard, Scanlan is no stranger to storytelling. As a freelancer he has written about just about every subject and earned three National Magazine Awards. He has over two-dozen books to his name but says this was a very unique project.
“It was a challenging book to write but also one that I felt privileged to write,” he said.
“It’s like I was parachuted into the lives of 50 extraordinary people. That was the pleasurable part of it.”
Admission to Tuesday’s presentation is $3 and available at the door of the L&A County Museum and Archives, located at 97 Thomas Street E in Napanee.