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| Mavis Gallant |
The Way Vivid, Way Underappreciated Short Stories of Mavis Gallant
Author Peter Orner pays tribute to of one of the past century's great character builders.
BIOGRAPHY OF MAVIS GALLANTMy hero / Mavis Gallant by Jhumpa Lahiri and Michael Ondaatje
By Joe FasslerJune 4, 2013
In 1952, a Canadian woman faced starvation in Madrid. This was Mavis Gallant, then 29 years old, who had just sold her first stories to The New Yorker's legendary fiction editor, William Maxwell. But the check, the only income she could count on, never came. Over a long period of destitution, she sold personal possessions to survive—a skirt, a winter coat, her clock, her typewriter (she could write by hand), even a beloved heirloom: "Parted with Granny's ring," she wrote, "...and spent every pesata of it on food. Felt I had not eaten a good meal in days and days."
