Where in Canada: Toronto in the 60s

It’s a wide, wide world out there, and while it’s fascinating to read about places far afield, places you’ve never been to, it can be just as enlightening to read a book that’s set in a place you know well: your city, your hometown, your turf. We’re introducing a new, regular blog column that shines a spotlight on Canadian spaces and places in literature. Today, it’s Toronto in the 1960s.

*****

What:

Still Hunting: A Memoir (ECW Press, 2013)

Who:

Martin Hunter was born in Toronto, and served as artistic director of Hart House Theatre at the U of T in the 70s. Active as a director and as a playwright, he has written for many magazines and produced a number of programs for CBC radio. In January of this year, Hunter was awarded the Order of Canada for his lifelong contributions to and involvement in theatre.

Where in Canada:

Picking up where his first memoir, Young Hunting, left off, Martin Hunter writes of his return to Toronto in the 1960s. He marries his teenage sweetheart, goes to work for the family paper company (Buntin Reid Paper Company), fathers three children, and settles into a bourgeois lifestyle. But things don’t stay settled for long. 

His flamboyant brother-in-law moves in with his gay lover, and the Swinging Sixties, full of peace, love, and experimentation, arrive in Rosedale with wild parties. Hunter writes a play about Toronto’s changing social dynamic that’s considered racy but wins an award. The University of Toronto offers him a position as playwright-in-residence, and there he consorts with the likes of Robertson Davies and Marshall McLuhan. 

Still Hunting takes readers on Hunter’s adventures in Europe and the Middle East, reveals his stories of working in the theatre, and shares tales of his spirited friends, colleagues, and loved ones. From Greek shipping tycoons to up-and-coming actors to the Maharaja of Jaipur and filmmaker James Ivory, this memoir of a life well lived is full of unforgettable characters — chief among them Martin Hunter.

Giving readers a rare glimpse into the culture and life in 1960s Toronto, Martin Hunter’s Still Hunting is a fascinating read. Readers learn about the booming paper and graphics industry in Toronto in the 1960s, University of Toronto’s Hart House Theatre in the 1970s, and a world-travelling artist who calls Toronto home. 

Not only is this memoir a great source for understanding Toronto’s history, it is also a great read. On CBC’s The Next Chapter, Antanas Sileika said, “I felt at moments as if I was reading Alice Munro … An exquisite piece of memoir writing.” 

_______Edited from the original post, published on the LPG blog