Author, musician Paul Quarrington dead, age 56
An award-winning novelist, musician, filmmaker, playwright and screenwriter, Paul Quarrington was perhaps Canada’s foremost renaissance man. He died yesterday after a nine-month battle with lung cancer. He was 56.
Quarrington was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer last May.
When he learned he was dying, Quarrington embarked on one of the most productive periods of his career, with an artistic output that cemented his place as one of the most vital creative forces of his generation. In this period, he recorded his first solo CD and a new album with his longtime band, the Porkbelly Futures, toured the country, including a trip to Labrador, and wrote a series of articles chronicling his fight with cancer for the National Post.
He recently finished his memoir, Cigar Box Banjo, which Greystone Books publisher Rob Sanders describes as about a life in music on the way to life’s end.
“He was in a creative frenzy, without question,” said Sanders, who will publish Quarrington’s book in May. “He just knew what he wanted to do and he went about doing it. And that included performing, touring with Porkbelly Futures, writing so many songs – it’s unbelievable how much he wrote in that period – recording CDs, and writing this book.”
“He looked me in the eye last fall, when I was saying: ‘Look Paul, I understand if you can’t finish it.’ He said: ‘Rob, I’ll finish it. I want to finish it.’ And he did.”
Quarrington was one of Canada’s most skilled humourists. He published his first novel, The Service, in 1978, and over the next 30 years would publish 15 more books, including: King Leary (1987), which won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and, more than 20 years later, CBC’s Canada Reads competition; and Whale Music (1989) which won the Governor-General’s Literary Award and was turned into a movie. He also published several volumes of non-fiction, and won the Matt Cohen Award for a lifetime of distinguished work by a Canadian author.
On the artist’s website, a statement said he died at home in Toronto in the early hours of Jan. 21, surrounded by family and friends.
Here is the full text of that statement:
“In May 2009, Paul was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. From May 2009 to January 2010 he channeled his prodigious creative energy into the completion of many artistic endeavours, included his first solo CD release, the third PorkBellys Futures CD release, his memoir for Greystone Books, Cigar Box Banjo, the documentary film inspired by the book, Life in Music, and much more.
His brave battle ended on January 21, 2010. He passed peacefully at home in Toronto in the early hours surrounded by friends and family. It is comforting to know that he didn’t suffer; he was calm and quiet holding hands with those who were closest to him.”
In a 2008 review of Quarrington’s novel The Ravine, Gazette contributor Joel Yanofsky wrote:
“This is Quarrington’s 10th novel and, so far, he’s received his share of honours. He’s been nominated for the Giller (for Galveston), and won the Governor General Award (for Whale Music) and the Leacock Medal (for King Leary). King Leary was also CBC’s Canada Reads 2008 selection. Even so, Quarrington hasn’t received enough credit in CanLit circles for taking the comic novel seriously and himself less so.”
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