Arthur Erickson: a Vancouverite, a traveller, an idealist, a modernist (mostly), a gay man, a partner, a charmer, a great teacher, an unreliable boss, an irresponsible businessman, a financial failure and an elder statesman. And also an architect—as the subtitle of Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life reminds us. David Stouck, a retired Simon Fraser English professor and biographer, attempts to unpack the tangled events of Erickson’s 84 years in this new biography.
The story is operatic in scope. Erickson, after a long apprenticeship, rose dramatically to prominence in his thirties, and would become both famous and wealthy, a friend to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, a jet-setter extraordinaire. And then, after a humiliation and personal losses, he had a quiet final act. Stouck covers all of this dutifully; yet, to a remarkable...
Alex Bozikovic is an editor at The Globe and Mail and writes for the paper about architecture. He also writes the blog No Mean City <nomeancity.net> and has contributed to magazines such as Azure, Dwell and Metropolis.
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