The Star-Brushed Horizon - Gutteridge, Don

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Résumé :
Don Gutteridge, in his book, The Star-Brushed Horizon, looks at his boyhood days, in the village of Point Edward, Ontario, with a sardonic and sentimental perspective. The pleasures and pains of growing up are detailed in sharp, poignant lyrics that readers will be able to relate to. The middle section of the book contains poems about his family, his friends and the joys of being a grandfather. This supremely well written volume concludes with two sections devoted to the loss of his wife, Anne, of fifty-seven years. This concluding section is tender, touching and clear-eyed in the face of monumental grief. In, The Star-Brushed Horizon, Don Gutteridge looks at his boyhood days, in the village of Point Edward, Ontario, with a wry and nostalgic eye. Further on in the book there are poems about his family and friends, including those whom he has lost. The poems in The Star-Brushed Horizon are a nostalgic look at the poet's childhood, its pleasures and its sorrows.

Biographie:
Don Gutteridge was born in Sarnia, Ontario and raised in the nearby village of Point Edward. In 1948 the family moved to the Fourth Line of Sarnia Township and Don attended a one-room country school for grades 6 to 8. (His 1992 novel, Winter's Descent, focusses on that experience) In 1952 the family moved to Chatham, Ontario, where Don attended Chatham Collegiate Institute. In 1956 he enrolled at Western University and graduated in 1960 with a degree in English Language and Literature. He began to write poetry in earnest there. Upon graduation, Don taught high school English for seven years, continuing to write poetry and an unpublished novel. In 1968 his first book of poetry appeared, Riel: A Poem For Voices. By 1976 he had completed a tetralogy of historical poems and published his first of twenty-two novels, Bus-Ride. In 1968 he joined Western's Faculty of Education, where he taught English Methods to prospective High School English teachers for the next twenty-five years, retiring a professor emeritus in 1993. During that time he continued to publish both poetry and fiction. Of particular note is his twelve-volume series of Marc Edwards mystery novels. He and his wife Anne (now deceased) welcomed two children and six grandchildren. Don's hobbies were golf, bridge and curling. Even at the age of eighty-one he continues to write poetry. In all he has produced seventy books: poetry, fiction and scholarly works in educational theory and practice. He lives in London Ontario.