An editor with Harcourt Brace wrote in a rejection letter: "Its relative brevity coupled with its extreme strangeness presents, I'm afraid, an insuperable obstacle in present circumstances." Fellow Canadian author Robertson Davies praised the book to McClelland & Stewart editors, and Engel started a lifelong friendship with company president Jack McClelland. The book was rejected when first sent to publishers. Early titles for the book included The Bear of Pennarth and The Dog of God. The story was suggested to the writer by the Haida artist Bill Reid. She was partly inspired by the First Nations legend of The Bear Princess, as recorded by folklorist Marius Barbeau. Engel kept with her 31-page draft, and developed it into the 141-page novel. The project was supposed to raise funds for the cash-strapped union, but did not make it to publication. collection of pornographic fiction by "serious" writers. Įngel started writing the novel to contribute to a W.U.C. Engel would end up dedicating the book to John Rich, her therapist. She took regular psychotherapy sessions, and worried about her mental health. She was raising twins while undergoing a painful divorce. Through the W.U.C., and her position on the board of trustees for the Toronto Public Library, she advocated public lending rights for Canadian authors. In 1973, Engel had started the Writers' Union of Canada (W.U.C.) from her home, and served as its first chairperson. The novel was written in a busy and tumultuous period in the author's life, a "very crazy time" as described by Engel. The book was published in 1970 by the new Toronto company House of Anansi Press, which would also put out another novel, Monodromos, and a collection of short stories, Inside the Easter Egg. She was awarded a Canada Council grant on the strength of the book, but had difficulty finding a publisher for her second novel, The Honeyman Festival. Her first novel, No Clouds of Glory (later known as Sarah Bastard's Notebook), was released in 1968. Engel studied under author Hugh MacLennan, finishing her Master's of Arts at McGill University in Montreal in 1957. The book was Engel's fifth novel, and her sixth piece of published writing. The book has been called "the most controversial novel ever written in Canada".
The story tells of a lonely archivist sent to work in northern Ontario, where she enters into a sexual relationship with a bear. It is Engel's fifth novel, and her most famous. It won the Governor General's Literary Award the same year. Governor General's Literary Award,1976 – Fiction, Englishīear is a novel by Canadian author Marian Engel, published in 1976.
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