Brian Busby 🇨🇦🇬🇱🇩🇰
@brianbusby.bsky.social
Writer, écrivain public, anthologist, literary historian, bibliophile, and three-time winner of the Ice Capades Colouring Contest. Author of Character Parts (Knopf), A Gentleman of Pleasure (McGill-Queen's UP), and The Dusty Bookcase (Biblioasis).
A century-old novel that anticipates A Room of One's Own by three years and is so good that I'm surprised there's never been a Virago edition. Fortunately, our own @invisibooks.bsky.social has made it available again. #CanLit #canadianliterature #booksky brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/08/betw...
Between Exhaustion and Expression
Shackles Madge Macbeth New York: Waterson, 1927 282 pages The first three pages of Shackles take the form of a letter written by the author...
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October 20, 2002. The setlist included 23 songs, including a cover of Neil Young's 'I've Been Waiting for You.' Now, if only I could identify the book he's reading. #booksky
David Bowie News@davidbowienews.bsky.social · last wk.David Bowie backstage at the Beacon Theatre in New York in 2002, by Frank Ockenfels 3. From Frank’s recent book, Collaboration: Frank Ockenfels 3 X David Bowie: Photographs.
On the heels of Simon's @stuckinabook.bsky.social review of Constance Beresford-Howe's The Book of Eve, I came across this theatrical adaptation. According to the intro, it was the most successful production of the 1976 Stratford Festival, outselling Chekhov, Congreve, Wilde, and the Bard of Avon!
Just read this novelization of a 1957 supernatural CinemaScope thriller. It was written by Robert Switzer, who this Montrealer considers Saskatoon's most mysterious writer. #CanLit #cdnhist #Saskatchewan brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/07/sill...
Silly Idol
The Living Idol Robert Switzer New York: Signet, 1957 128 pages Robert Switzer's second book, The Living Idol is a novelization of a Hollyw...
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Canadian politics in a nutshell: imitating an unhinged American war criminal while dressed like a fancy bag of milk.
Corey Atad@coreyatad.com · 4w agocan't stop laughing at this Poilievre: "We will reinstill a warrior culture, not a woke culture."
White supremacist neo-fascist militiamen rely on public transportation. Who knew? Another photo for the ages. Happy July 4th from Canada! So glad to be far from any of this shit.
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · last mo.“.. Members of the group Patriot Front ride the metro on the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in Washington, D.C.” @reuters.com
Another chapter in a #canlit mystery, this unrecognized debut novel by entirely forgotten Saskatchewan author Robert Switzer. Esquire thought he was the real deal, publishing 19 of his stories between 1947 and 1957. Switzer hasn't been heard from since 1961. brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/07/livi...
Living Through Another Cuba
The Tent of the Wicked Robert Switzer New York: Signet, 1956 128 pages We begin in a despot's bedroom. Six soldiers enter, one throws the li...
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There may be more enchanting climes Within a southern zone; There may be eastern Edens deckt With charms to thee unknown; But thou art fairest unto me, Because thou art mine own, Canada, my land. #CanadaDay #canlit brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/07/wm-m...
W.M. MacKeracher's 'Canada, My Land'
Patriotic and personal verse for the day by William Mackay MacKeracher (1871-1913), the very same man who wrote that old favourite 'My Cana...
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She was a writer worthy of admiration and accolades. She deserved so much better.
McGill-Queen's University Press@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social · last mo.Some #CanLit content in advance of #CanadaDay: A profile of Nelly Arcan, who turned her years as an escort into powerful fiction. An excerpt in The Walrus from Myra Bloom's new book, Evasive Manoeuvres: Canadian Women’s Confessional Writing.
Michael de Adder is by far the best editorial cartoonist working today, but he still can't quite capture Donald Trump's teeny, tiny hands.
My most recent read: A once-popular 1868 Canadian novel about an English baronet whose "one hour of mad, brief bliss" with a beautiful Roma woman leads to decades of well-deserved torment for both he and his family. #canlit #cdnhist #booksky brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/06/back...
Back to the Gypsy That She Was
The Baronet's Bride; Or, A Woman's Vengeance May Agnes Fleming Chicago: Donahue, n.d. 250 pages Not to suggest that he didn't deserve it, bu...
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Celebrating Greenland's National Day. The view from our Canadian home. #grønland #Greenland #vexillology
Funny, how "The Most Historic Sporting Event of All Time" isn't even "The Most Historic Sporting Event of This Weekend."
Is the torture inflicted in co-hosting the World Cup really worth the 1.1 billion paid by Canadian taxpayers? Before you answer, consider this woman's plight as reported in The Globe & Mail, "Canada's National Newspaper."
This 1895 paperback arrived in today's post. It's not in the best of shape, but this long-time Grant Allen fan had never before seen a copy. I expect @causticcovercritic.bsky.social will understand. With over 350 illustrations in silhouette by the broithers Gould! #canlit #cdnhist
I've now read every novel by once popular, now forgotten Isabel Ecclestone Mackay (1875-1928). This 1919 novel wasn't her best, but I liked it just the same. Amongst other things, I learned that 1913 experienced "an autumn of tight skirts." #canlit #cdnhist brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/06/mist...
Mist of Morning on a Monday Morning
Mist of Morning Isabel Ecclestone Mackay Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1919 407 pages "We're piling up fireworks all around — just suppose ...
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BREAKING: The Trapp Family has withdrawn from Donald Trump's Freedom 250 concert, citing previous unpleasant experiences with fascists.
Come on New York Times, the word is 'murdered,' not 'killed.'
Canadian novelist Phyllis Gotlieb was born 100 years ago today, and so I was encouraged to read her 1964 debut Sunburst. It should be taught in our schools. I mean, c'mon, it was recognized as a classic upon publication. #canlit #cdnhist #booksky brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/05/prob...
Of Problem Children and Adolescent Angst
Sunburst Phyllis Gotlieb New York: Fawcett, 1964 160 pages Sorrel Park is no place to live, but this wasn't always so. A smallish city not f...
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An old story. A teenage girl from the country is swept up by Montreal's nightlife. The year is 1763. #cdnhist #canlit #booksky brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/05/a-we...
A Wedding, but No Wedding Night; or, A Sorry, Tragic Tale of Two Solitudes (in two editions)
Antoinette de Mirecourt or, Secret Marrying and Secret Sorrowing Rosanna Leprohon Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1973 200 pages Antoinet...
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This is what Mother’s Day means to an imbecile whose mother never loved him. Sad.
My first venture into the novels of Marian Keith. It was most agreeable and at times downright charming. In other words, not for me. #canlit #cdnhist #booksky brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/04/in-c...
In Canada's Green and Pleasant Land
As a Watered Garden Marian Keith [Mary Esther Miller MacGregor] Toronto; McClelland & Stewart, 1946 297 pages My Marian Keith collection beg...
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At age 23, a Saskatoon boy publishes his first short story in Esquire. He publishes 18 more stories in the magazine over the next 15 years, along with three novels... and then disappears. All I've been able to find about Robert Switzer: #canlit #cdnhist brianbusby.blogspot.com/2026/04/robe...
Robert Switzer, Esquire
A follow-up to last week's review of I Was Going Anyway by Robert Switzer . Robert Switzer's I Was Going Anyway as published as a Cock Rob...
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