Albert Norman Levine (October 22, 1923 – June 14, 2005) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

writer,

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. He is perhaps best remembered for his terse prose. Though he was part of the St. Ives artistic community in Cornwall, and friends with painters

Patrick Heron Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced b ...

and

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

, his written expression was not abstract, but concrete. "The leaner the language the more suggestive," he wrote in his 1993 essay, ''Sometimes It Works''.Oldham, A. (2005, July 1)
"Norman Levine: Novelist with painter’s perception"
''The Guardian''.

Life and career

Norman Levine was born on October 22, 1923 in Minsk, Poland, but spent most of his adult life in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. His Jewish family had fled from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

with the advent of

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

in the years prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. His adolescence was spent on the streets of Ottawa, but his coming of age was his time as a

Lancaster bomber The Avro Lancaster is a British World War II, Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the S ...

pilot for the Canadian division of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

. He was based at Leeming. Post-war he met an Englishwoman, Margaret, settled down and had three children. His writing, a reflection of his life, was also a direct influence on that life, as he had little money to keep up rent payments; as a result his family often moved. After England he lived, for a time, in Canada, with his second wife. He also lived in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

before finally returning to England, where he died ten years later. In 2002 he was presented with the

Matt Cohen Prize The Matt Cohen Award is an award given annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to a Canadian writer, in honour of a distinguished lifetime contribution to Canadian literature. First presented in 2000, it was established in memory of Matt Cohen, a ...

(established in 2001 by the

Writers' Trust of Canada The Writers' Trust of Canada (french: La Société d'encouragement aux écrivains du Canada) is a registered charity which provides financial support to Canadian writers. Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, Margaret Laure ...

to recognize a lifetime of work by a Canadian writer).

Bibliography

Short stories

* ''One Way Ticket'' (1961) * ''I Don’t Want to Know Anyone Too Well'' (1971) (translated into German by Annemarie Böll as"Ein kleines Stückchen Blau") * ''Thin Ice'' (1979) * ''Why Do You Live So Far Away?'' (1984) (translated into German by Annemarie Böll as "Der Spielplatz") * ''Champagne Barn'' (1984) * ''The Beat and the Still'' (1990) * ''Something Happened Here'' (1991) * ''The Ability to Forget'' (2003)

Novels

* ''The Angled Road'' (1952) * ''From a Seaside Town'' (1970)

Poetry

* ''Myssium'' (1948) * ''The Tight-rope Walker'' (1950) *''I Walk by the Harbour'' (1976)

Non-fiction

*''Canada Made Me'' (1958) *"Sometimes It Works" (in ''How Stories Mean'', edited by John Metcalf and J.R. Struthers) (1993)

Editor

* ''Canadian Winter's Tales'' (1968)

References

External links

York University Archives

Norman Levine entry at The Canadian Encyclopedia
1923 births 2005 deaths Canadian male short story writers Jewish Canadian writers Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent Writers from Ottawa 20th-century Canadian short story writers 20th-century Canadian male writers Royal Canadian Air Force personnel of World War II Canadian World War II pilots Polish emigrants to Canada {{Canada-writer-stub