Mavis Gallant

Canadian writer

Mavis Leslie de Trafford Gallant, , née Young (11 August 1922 – 18 February 2014), was a Canadian writer who spent much of her life and career in France. Best known as a short story writer, she also published novels, plays and essays. and his wife, Benedictine Wiseman. Young died in 1932 of kidney disease,

Gallant was educated at 17 public, private, and convent schools in the United States and Canada. She married John Gallant, a Winnipeg musician, in 1942.

In her 20s, Gallant briefly worked for the National Film Board before taking a job as a reporter for the Montreal Standard (1944–1950). Gallant left journalism in 1950 to pursue fiction writing full time. The magazine soon published other stories of hers, including "One Morning in June" and "The Picnic". She did not initially know these later stories had been accepted by the magazine, as her literary agent, Jacques Chambrun, pocketed her $1,535 in royalties and told her the magazine had declined her stories, while simultaneously lying about her residence to the magazine so they could not contact her directly; she discovered that she had been published only upon seeing her name in the magazine while reading it in a library, and thus established her longstanding relationship with the magazine by directly contacting and befriending New Yorker fiction editor William Maxwell. She published 116 stories in The New Yorker throughout her career, putting her in the same league as John Cheever or John Updike. Alongside Alice Munro, Gallant is one of only a few Canadian authors whose works have regularly appeared in the magazine. Her "Linnet Muir" series of stories, which appeared in several of her books before being collected in their entirety in Home Truths, are her most explicitly semi autobiographical works. Throughout Gallant's early career, Canadian literary critics often wrote of her as being unfairly overlooked in Canada because of her expatriate status; prior to the 1970s, in fact, her books were not picked up by Canadian publishers at all, and were available only as rare and expensive American imports until Macmillan of Canada bought publication rights to From the Fifteenth District. According to journalist Robert Fulford, the neglect flowed in both directions, as Gallant did not actually undertake any serious effort to secure a Canadian publisher until Macmillan editor Douglas Gibson approached her in the late 1970s. In response, Gibson compiled Home Truths: Selected Canadian Stories, a collection of previously published stories selected to highlight the Canadian themes and settings present in her work. That volume won the Governor General's Award for English language fiction in 1981. Gallant was honored at Symphony Space in New York City on November 1, 2006, in an event for Selected Shorts—fellow authors Russell Banks, Jhumpa Lahiri and Michael Ondaatje honoured her and read excerpts from her work, and Gallant herself made a rare personal appearance, reading one of her short stories in its entirety. Gallant's private journals were slated for publication by McClelland and Stewart and Knopf, with the first volume covering the period from 1952 to 1969, but as of 2023 have yet to appear. Gallant was candid about her desire for autonomy and privacy. In an interview with Geoff Hancock in Canadian Fiction magazine in 1978, she discussed her "life project" and her deliberate move to France to write by saying, "I have arranged matters so that I would be free to write. It's what I like doing." In the preface to her collection Home Truths: Selected Canadian Stories (1981), she used the words of Boris Pasternak as her epigraph: "Only personal independence matters."

Gallant died, aged 91, on February 18, 2014.

Grazia Merler observes in her book, Mavis Gallant: Narrative Patterns and Devices, that "Psychological character development is not the heart of Mavis Gallant's stories, nor is plot. Specific situation development and reconstruction of the state of mind or of heart is, however, the main objective." Frequently, Gallant's stories focus on expatriate men and women who have come to feel lost or isolated; marriages that have grown flimsy or shabby; lives that have faltered and now hover in the shadowy area between illusion, self delusion, and reality. Because of her heritage and understanding of Acadian history, she is often compared to Antonine Maillet, considered to be a spokesperson for Acadian culture in Canada. In her critical book Reading Mavis Gallant, Janice Kulyk Keefer says: "Gallant is a writer who dazzles us with her command of the language, her innovative use of narrative forms, the acuity of her intelligence, and the incisiveness of her wit. Yet she also disconcerts us with her insistence on the constrictions and limitations that dominate human experience." In a review of her work in Books in Canada in 1978, Geoff Hancock asserts that "Mavis Gallant's fiction is among the finest ever written by a Canadian. But, like buried treasure, both the author and her writing are to discover." In the Canadian Reader, Robert Fulford writes: "One begins comparing her best moments to those of major figures in literary history. Names like Henry James, Chekhov, and George Eliot dance across the mind."

Fascism is a recurring subject in Gallant's stories. She once described her 1973 collection The Pegnitz Junction as "a book about where fascism came from . not the historical causes of Fascism—just its small possibilities in people." The story, which is Gallant's most widely anthologized work and has been called "arguably her masterpiece," depicts an art dealer in 1970s France who seems to slowly embrace fascism. At the same time, there are details in the story that seem to undermine his association with fascist ideology. According to critic Andy Lamey, the protagonist of "Speck's Idea" should indeed be viewed as a fascist, "but of a particular, non ideological type." In the 1970s, France was undergoing a debate about the country's collaboration with its Nazi occupiers during World War II. Lamey offers historical material to suggest that Gallant's story is informed by this debate. He characterizes "Speck's Idea" as a "dramatization of how a segment of the French population, which its central character represents, could tolerate and condone fascism for reasons other than a deep attraction to fascist ideas. These reasons include indifference and self interest. Gallant's protagonist ultimately illustrates how fascism drew not merely on ideological, but also on opportunistic, motivations."

Green Water, Green Sky (Houghton Mifflin, 1959). A Fairly Good Time (Random House, 1970).

All stories published in The New Yorker except as noted. + Title Publication Collected in "Madeline’s Birthday" September 1, 1951 Going Ashore "One Morning in May"a. k. a. "One Morning in June" June 7, 1952 The Other Paris "The Picnic" August 9, 1952 The Other ParisThe End of the World and Other Stories "The Deceptions of Marie Blanche" Charm (March 1953) The Other Paris "The Other Paris" April 11, 1953 The Other ParisThe End of the World and Other Stories "Señor Pinedo" January 9, 1954 The Other Paris "Wing's Chips" April 17, 1954 "The Legacy" June 26, 1954 "By the Sea" July 17, 1954 In Transit "Poor Franzi" Harper's Bazaar (October 1954) The Other Paris "Going Ashore" December 18, 1954 "About Geneva" Charm (June 1955) The Other ParisThe End of the World and Other Stories "Autumn Day" October 29, 1955 The Other Paris "A Day Like Any Other" ? "In Italy" February 25, 1956 In Transit "Thank You For the Lovely Tea" June 9, 1956 Home Truths "Thieves and Rascals" Esquire (July 1956) Going Ashore "Bernadette" January 12, 1957 My Heart Is Broken "An Emergency Case" February 16, 1957 In Transit "A Short Love Story" Montrealer (June 1957) "Jeux d'Ete" July 27, 1957 In Transit "The Moabitess" November 2, 1957 My Heart Is Broken "Green Water, Green Sky"* June 27, 1959 * Excerpt from Green Water, Green Sky "Travellers Must Be Content"* July 11, 1959 "August"* August 29, 1959 "Jorinda and Jorindel" September 19, 1959 Home Truths "Up North" November 21, 1959 "Acceptance of Their Ways" January 30, 1960 My Heart Is BrokenThe End of the World and Other Stories "When We Were Nearly Young" October 15, 1960 In Transit "Better Times" December 3, 1960 "Rose" December 17, 1960 The Cost of Living: Early and Uncollected Stories "A Question of Disposal"a. k. a. "Two Questions" June 10, 1961 In Transit "My Heart Is Broken" August 12, 1961 My Heart Is Broken "The Cost of Living" March 3, 1962 "Night and Day" March 17, 1962 Going Ashore "One Aspect of a Rainy Day" April 14, 1962 "The Hunter's Waking Thoughts" September 29, 1962 In Transit "Sunday Afternoon" November 24, 1962 My Heart Is Broken "Willi" January 5, 1963 Going Ashore "Careless Talk" September 28, 1963 In Transit "An Unmarried Man's Summer" October 12, 1963 My Heart Is BrokenThe End of the World and Other Stories "Ernst in Civilian Clothes" November 16, 1963 The Pegnitz Junction "The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street" December 14, 1963 My Heart Is BrokenHome Truths "The Image on the Mirror" My Heart Is Broken "An Autobiography" February 1, 1964 The Pegnitz Junction "The Circus" June 20, 1964 In Transit "Paola and Renata" The Southern Review (January 1965) Going Ashore "Virus X" January 30, 1965 Home Truths "Orphans' Progress" April 3, 1965 "In Transit" August 6, 1965 In Transit "The Statues Taken Down" October 9, 1965 "Questions and Answers" May 28, 1966 "Vacances Pax" July 16, 1966 "Bonaventure" July 30, 1966 Home Truths "A Report" December 3, 1966 In Transit "The End of the World" June 10, 1967 The End of the World and Other Stories "The Accident" October 28, 1967 "The Sunday After Christmas" December 30, 1967 In Transit "April Fish" February 10, 1968 "Malcolm and Bea" March 23, 1968 The End of the World and Other Stories "Saturday" June 8, 1968 Home Truths "The Captive Niece" January 4, 1969 In Transit "Good Deed" February 22, 1969 "The Rejection" April 12, 1969 Going Ashore "The Prodigal Parent" June 7, 1969 The End of the World and Other StoriesHome Truths "The Wedding Ring" June 28, 1969 The End of the World and Other Stories "The Old Friends" August 30, 1969 The Pegnitz Junction "New Year's Eve" January 10, 1970 The End of the World and Other Stories "In the Tunnel" September 18, 1971 The End of the World and Other StoriesHome Truths "O Lasting Peace" January 8, 1972 The Pegnitz Junction "An Alien Flower" October 7, 1972 "The Pegnitz Junction" "His Mother" August 13, 1973 From the Fifteenth District "The Latehomecomer" July 8, 1974 "Irina" December 2, 1974 "The Four Seasons" June 16, 1975 "In Youth Is Pleasure" November 24, 1975 Home Truths "Between Zero and One" December 8, 1975 "Varieties of Exile" January 19, 1976 "Voices Lost in Snow" April 5, 1976 "The Moslem Wife" August 23, 1976 From the Fifteenth District "Potter" March 21, 1977 "The Doctor" June 20, 1977 Home Truths "With a Capital T" Canadian Fiction (Spring 1978) "From the Fifteenth District" October 30, 1978 From the Fifteenth District "The Burgundy Weekend" Tamarack Review (Winter 1979) Going Ashore "Baum, Gabriel, 1935 ( )" February 12, 1979 From the Fifteenth District "The Remission" August 13, 1979 "Speck's Idea" November 19, 1979 Overhead in a Balloon "A Revised Guide to Paris" February 11, 1980 Going Ashore "From Sunrise to Daybreak" March 17, 1980 "The Assembly" Harper's Magazine (May 1980) Overhead in a Balloon "Dido Flute, Spouse to Europe" May 12, 1980 "Going Ashore" "From Gamut to Yalta" September 15, 1980 "Europe by Satellite" November 3, 1980 "Mousse" December 22, 1980 Going Ashore "French Crenellation" February 9, 1981 "A Painful Affair" March 16, 1981 Overhead in a Balloon "This Space" July 6, 1981 "On With the New in France" August 10, 1981 Going Ashore "La Vie Parisienne" October 19, 1981 "Larry" November 16, 1981 Overhead in a Balloon "Siegfried's Memoirs" April 5, 1982 Going Ashore "Treading Water" May 24, 1982 "A Flying Start" September 13, 1982 Overhead in a Balloon "Luc and His Father" October 4, 1982 "Grippes and Poche" November 29, 1982 "A Recollection" August 22, 1983 "Rue de Lille" September 19, 1983 "The Colonel's Child" October 10, 1983 "Lena" October 31, 1983 "Overhead in a Balloon" July 2, 1984 "The Chosen Husband" April 15, 1985 Across the Bridge "From Cloud to Cloud" July 8, 1985 "Florida" August 26, 1985 "Leaving the Party" March 3, 1986 "Kingdom Come" September 8, 1986 Across the Bridge "Dede" January 5, 1987 "1933" a. k. a. "Declassé" Mademoiselle (February 1987) "Let It Pass" May 18, 1987 "The Concert Party" January 28, 1988 "In a War" October 30, 1989 "Across the Bridge" March 18, 1991 Across the Bridge "Forain" June 24, 1991 "A State of Affairs" December 23, 1991 "Mlle. Dias de Corta" December 28, 1992 & January 4, 1993 "The Fenton Child" 1993 The Collected Stories of Mavis Gallant "In Plain Sight" October 25, 1993 "Scarves, Beads, Sandals" February 20 & 27, 1995

In 1981, Gallant was named an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contribution to literature.

In 2018, the Pakistani American author Sadia Shepard was accused of having copied Gallant's short story "The Ice Wagon Coming Down the Street" in her story "Foreign Returned". Director Wes Anderson based one of the stories in his 2021 film The French Dispatch on "The Events in May: A Paris Notebook", a two part New Yorker story written by Gallant. A fictional reporter inspired by Gallant was portrayed in the film by actress Frances McDormand.