In fall 2006 Charlie Foran signed with Knopf Canada to write a biography of Mordecai Richler tentatively titled Mordecai: The Life. On November 22nd The Globe and Mail covered the signing in their arts pages. From the article:

"...Foran, 46, a novelist himself as well as an essayist and memoirist, was short-listed for the Governor General's Literary award for non-fiction in 1995 for The Last House of Ulster. In a statement released yesterday, Louise Dennys, executive publisher of Knopf Canada, said she felt 'Mordecai would have been well pleased with Charles Foran as his biographer. Like Mordecai, he is both a book writer and a journalist, and he too understands the exigencies of the scribbler's craft.'

"For his part, Foran, born and raised in Toronto with a degree from University College, Dublin, said 'no other Canadian has meant as much to me as Mordecai Richler... I admire his craft and appreciate the moral seriousness of his work. I also enjoyed the public persona, a bracing mix of reserve, irascibility, and candor.'"

November 22, 2006

MORDECAI RICHLER BIOGRAPHY TO BE PUBLISHED

Knopf Canada is delighted to announce that it will be publishing the biography of one of Canada's most beloved and successful writers, Mordecai Richler, by Charles Foran. Mordecai: The Life, the first literary biography of Mordecai Richler, is being written with the co-operation of the Richler family and has the support of Mordecai Richler's wife, Florence Richler.

Mordecai Richler died in 2001, at the age of 70, acclaimed as one of the greatest writers of the last century, above all for his storytelling power, irreverent, trenchant wit, and humanity. He was the author of 10 award-winning novels – including The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, St. Urbain's Horseman, Joshua Then and Now, Solomon Gursky Was Here, and Barney's Version – as well as numerous works of non-fiction, screenplays, and the 3 books in the Jacob Two-Two series much loved by generations of children.

Charles Foran is a noted novelist, critic and essayist. His novels include Carolan's Farewell and Butterfly Lovers, and among his non-fiction works are The Last House of Ulster and Sketches In Winter. He says: "No other Canadian writer has meant as much to me as Mordecai Richler. Beginning with a high-school experience of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and culminating in almost annual re-readings of Barney's Version since its publication in 1997, I have thrilled to Richler's distinctive humour and pathos, outrage and warmth. I admire his craft and appreciate the moral seriousness of his work. I also enjoyed his public persona, a bracing mix of reserve, irascibility, and candour.

"The existence of Richler's Montreal was also fundamental to my own sense of the possibilities of Canadian literature. Growing up in a suburb of Toronto, I longed to experience imaginatively a corner of urban Canada that had been rendered in the manner of Joyce's Dublin or the London of Dickens – reconfigured through character and language until it existed, permanently, as a 'real' literary place. Richler provided the whole country with that 'corner': Montreal's palimpsest of often competing histories and narratives. Not for nothing, when I moved to Montreal, was my first address 5765 Esplanade, a few blocks up from the home of Richler's grandfather and two streets west of St. Urbain..."

Charles Foran admits he shares with Mordecai an interest in, among other things, "Jewish Montreal and World War Two, Jackie Robinson and Jean Beliveau, fishing and snooker and Scotch." He adds: "He is a riveting character, the more so for his complexity and profound sense of the civilized. Though I met him only a few times, it seems everyone who had even the briefest of encounters came away with an impression. Outsized and often outrageous, brilliant and fearless, Mordecai Richler deserves a literary biography of equal ambition – and, I hope, stature."

Knopf Canada is the publisher of Mordecai Richler's last 4 books of non-fiction and his last major novel, the Giller Prize-winning, Barney's Version, published in 1997. Louise Dennys, Executive Publisher of Knopf Canada, and Richler's editor for those last books, says: "I feel Mordecai would have been well pleased with Charles Foran as his biographer: like Mordecai, he is both a book writer and a journalist, and he too understands the exigencies of the 'scribblers' ' craft. He combines literary insight and love for his subject. Mordecai Richler was a man of enormous literary gifts, deeply engaged in the world and our times. Happily, there is no shortage of material for Charlie Foran to explore – through Mordecai's own writing, and the stories of those who knew him well, to his own letters – not least his famous, hilarious faxes to friends and foes alike. But this book could not be written without the support of Florence Richler, and I've no doubt that Mordecai: The Life will be deeply rewarding for us all."

Mordecai: The Life will be published by Knopf Canada in approximately 2009. Charles Foran is represented by Jackie Kaiser at Westwood Creative Artists, who negotiated the publication arrangements.