The easiest way for an author to attract attention, the fastest shortcut to notoriety, if not celebrity, is to attack a better-known writer in print—the more famous, the more iconic, the better. Martin Amis, take this. Margaret Atwood, take that. Pierre Berton? Why not? When he died last December at 84, no writer in this country was better known. A Companion of the Order of Canada, Berton had won 30 literary awards and received a dozen honorary degrees. He had been a public figure longer than most Canadians have been alive.
Not only that, but by his own savvy count—one eye, as always, on the marketplace—the man had written 50 books. Not all of those sing and dance. Over the years, first-run reviewers have provided plenty of ammunition. All the attention seeker would have to do is load the canon, spike it with nasty witticisms and blast away. When the smoke cleared, wow! He would be The Warrior Scribe Who Felled An Icon!
Sorry to disappoint, but that is not...
Ken McGoogan, who has written extensively on the fur trade and Arctic exploration, recently published Celtic Lightning: How the Scots and the Irish Created a Canadian Nation.
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