Alden Nowlan is a prolific pioneer of Atlantic Canadian writing. Between the 1958 release of A Darkness in the Earth and his untimely death in 1983, Alden Nowlan, arguably one of the most important authors out of Atlantic Canada, released a handful of novels, over twenty collections of poetry, four works of drama, and a few non-fiction titles to round it off. His life story reads like a captivating novel as well; a true tale of a writer’s passion over coming all odds stacked against him. Nowlan and his sister were abandoned by their mother (who birthed him at fourteen; his father “a heavy drinker twice her age”), and was left to be raised by his paternal grandmother, who had Nowlan abandon education after four grades. So he discovered the library, walked or hitchhiked the eighteen miles to fetch books, and taught himself everything he needed to know. “I wrote in secret. My father would as soon have seen me wear lipstick.” Later in life, when diagnosed with cancer and limited in work abilities, UNB granted him their writer-in-residence position for fifteen years.

This week, over fifteen years after his death, Goose Lane Editions are re-launching his classic first novel, The Wanton Troopers … with a brand new, recently discovered ending. It’s a continuation of this novels posthumous fate; Goose Lane published it originally in 1988, five years after Nowlan passed away.

How does that happen? Goose Lane were in the process of preparing a Reader’s Guide edition, complete with an abridged version of his last interview, with Jon Pederson, an afterword by David Adams Richards, and an extended biographical note by Peter Toner. When they went to consult the original manuscript, not the printed book itself … editor Laurel Boone was “shocked” to discover the actual final page of Alden’s classic novel. Apparently, in the previously published version, protagonist Kevin O’Brien’s “mood and tone are quite passive, and he seems sadly resigned to his fate. In the updated version, he exhibits a strong and renewed sense of defiance or resistance to his situation.”

It remains a mystery why or how the omission happened. It’s pretty exciting from a marketing angle, I must say. I hope it garners Nowlan some interest from younger generations not so familiar with his work, and provides long-standing fans a reason to re-read The Wanton Troopers.

Synopsis from the publisher: “The Wanton Troopers is the story of Kevin O’Brien and his hunger for opportunity. In unusually stark prose, Kevin observes his being abandoned by his beloved mother and grows to recognize, if not to fully understand, adult pathos and the yearnings of the heart. In this essential domestic novel, Nowlan depicts both painful intensity and poignancy in Kevin’s relationships with the mother he adores, his violent father, and his conflicted grandmother. Nowlan’s treatment of family relationships, sexual confusions, and the pains of love are direct, authentic, and affective.”

Special Screening of award-winning documentary, Alden Nowlan: An Introduction

In this award-winning documentary, included in abridged format in the new edition of the novel, Nowlan talks freely about his life and reads from his work. The screening will be followed by a Q & A session with Pedersen. This event is free and open to the public. Copies of the new edition of The Wanton Troopers will be available for purchase.

Tuesday 24 November 2009 from 7 to 9pm
Harriet Irving Library, Milham Room
University of New Brunswick, 5 MacAulay Lane