- Paperback: 372 pages
- Publisher: Macfarlane Walter & Ross; 2nd edition (Jan 1 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1551990199
- ISBN-13: 978-1551990194
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.7 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #359,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“A tour de force – the story soars off the page.”
–Globe and Mail
“Extraordinary and luminous…the book’s themes are grand ones: the enduring power of words on a page and how communication with another human being can make the unbearable bearable.…a book about hope.”
–Ottawa Citizen
From the Hardcover edition.
–Globe and Mail
“Extraordinary and luminous…the book’s themes are grand ones: the enduring power of words on a page and how communication with another human being can make the unbearable bearable.…a book about hope.”
–Ottawa Citizen
From the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
Named one of the year's best books by the Globe and Mail, Maclean's, and Elm Street magazine
“A letter,” wrote Emily Dickinson, “always seemed to me like immortality.” Letters – personal, revealing, unguarded – sometimes survive their authors and their recipients, preserving lives, inviting discovery, daring interpretation.
In 1987, writer Merilyn Simonds found a cache of letters, albums, clippings and other memorabilia in the attic of her Kingston, Ontario, home, the bits and pieces of an unknown woman’s life. Among the overflowing boxes and stuffed sugar sacks was a tin box that held one complete, brief collection of letters from the months immediately after the First World War in 1919, a one-way correspondence written in pencil on flimsy paper, undated and without postmarks. From this careless jumble of pages, remarkable individuals and events emerged: a convict, a penitentiary, a village girl, a life in small town Canada at the end of the Great War.
Merilyn Simonds was drawn irresistibly to the lives of Joe “Daddy Long Legs”, a thief and con artist incarcerated inside the stone fortress that was the country’s most notorious prison, and of Phyllis Halliday, a seventeen-year-old schoolgirl whose family home bordered the prison quarry and who fell under the spell of a man she could never meet or touch, except through their clandestine correspondence.
Around them swirled a cast of equally compelling characters, chief among them William St. Pierre Hughes, superintendent of the nations’ prisons, whose fate, like those of Joe and Phyllis, was bound to the conspiracies and intrigues inside Kingston Penitentiary. All three are caught in prisons of their own devising; only one truly escapes.
In the year after its publication, families of all the major characters in the book contacted author Merilyn Sinonds to share their stories and find out more about these little known relations. As a result, she learned that Joseph Cleroux had been part of the Cleroux gang that burgled Ottawa Valley businesses in the first decades of the 1900s.
The story of Josie Cleroux’s early years and what is now known about where he ended up is told in the epilogue of the paperback edition of The Convict Lover
From the Hardcover edition.
“A letter,” wrote Emily Dickinson, “always seemed to me like immortality.” Letters – personal, revealing, unguarded – sometimes survive their authors and their recipients, preserving lives, inviting discovery, daring interpretation.
In 1987, writer Merilyn Simonds found a cache of letters, albums, clippings and other memorabilia in the attic of her Kingston, Ontario, home, the bits and pieces of an unknown woman’s life. Among the overflowing boxes and stuffed sugar sacks was a tin box that held one complete, brief collection of letters from the months immediately after the First World War in 1919, a one-way correspondence written in pencil on flimsy paper, undated and without postmarks. From this careless jumble of pages, remarkable individuals and events emerged: a convict, a penitentiary, a village girl, a life in small town Canada at the end of the Great War.
Merilyn Simonds was drawn irresistibly to the lives of Joe “Daddy Long Legs”, a thief and con artist incarcerated inside the stone fortress that was the country’s most notorious prison, and of Phyllis Halliday, a seventeen-year-old schoolgirl whose family home bordered the prison quarry and who fell under the spell of a man she could never meet or touch, except through their clandestine correspondence.
Around them swirled a cast of equally compelling characters, chief among them William St. Pierre Hughes, superintendent of the nations’ prisons, whose fate, like those of Joe and Phyllis, was bound to the conspiracies and intrigues inside Kingston Penitentiary. All three are caught in prisons of their own devising; only one truly escapes.
In the year after its publication, families of all the major characters in the book contacted author Merilyn Sinonds to share their stories and find out more about these little known relations. As a result, she learned that Joseph Cleroux had been part of the Cleroux gang that burgled Ottawa Valley businesses in the first decades of the 1900s.
The story of Josie Cleroux’s early years and what is now known about where he ended up is told in the epilogue of the paperback edition of The Convict Lover
From the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding blend of fact and fiction..., Oct 4 2000
By Caz - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Convict Lover: A True Story (Hardcover)
This is a truly unique book. In 1987, a cache of letters, albums and clippings was discovered in the attic of a house in Kingston, Ontario, the bits and pieces of an unknown woman's life. Among the overflowing boxes and stuffed sugar sacks was a collection of letters from the months immediately after the First World War, a one-way correspondence written in pencil on flimsy paper. From this careless jumble of papers, there emerged unforgettable characters and an extraordinary story: a convict, a village girl, a penitentiary, and the town that lived in its shadow. The Convict Lover is a dazzling blend of historical detective work and imaginative recreation. You'll be spellbound by the relationship that unfolds through the very secretive, unconventional contacts made between one Joseph Cleroux and his link to the outside world, Phyllis Halliday. This book is an extraordinary stroke of literary good fortune. A wonderful read.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding blend of fact and fiction..., Oct 4 2000
By Caz - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Convict Lover: A True Story (Hardcover)
This is a truly unique book. In 1987, a cache of letters, albums and clippings was discovered in the attic of a house in Kingston, Ontario, the bits and pieces of an unknown woman's life. Among the overflowing boxes and stuffed sugar sacks was a collection of letters from the months immediately after the First World War, a one-way correspondence written in pencil on flimsy paper. From this careless jumble of papers, there emerged unforgettable characters and an extraordinary story: a convict, a village girl, a penitentiary, and the town that lived in its shadow. The Convict Lover is a dazzling blend of historical detective work and imaginative recreation. You'll be spellbound by the relationship that unfolds through the very secretive, unconventional contacts made between one Joseph Cleroux and his link to the outside world, Phyllis Halliday. Excellent read. This book is an extraordinary stroke of literary good fortune. A wonderful read.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A powerful story of two lives briefly meeting., Oct 30 1997
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Convict Lover: A True Story (Hardcover)
This story combines all the finest elements of a good read - it is a true story of the incongruous love between a young girl and a convict in the nearby Kingston Penitentiary based on letters found in the author's attic. Merilyn has researched meticulously so that the story combines in a realistic fashion the daily life of both the young girl - who is a romantic schoolgirl, often home ill and living in a strictly religious family - and the convict - who is an American imprisoned in Canada and determined not to let his sentence interfere with the quality of his life.Through their letters, a picture emerges of the young man and the daily ritual that is his life in one of the newest penal institutions. The young girl uses her imagination to find ways to supply him with ordinary things that have extraordinary meaning inside prison walls. She buys him tobacco, mails his sister letters and sends him presents on holidays. Their relationship serves to increase her self confidence as she is shy, private and somewhat poor in health.
This book is a powerful story touching upon prison life, life as a young girl and the strange ways fate can bring two disparate people together.
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