The two tots arrived almost frozen, their cheeks on fire. For prudence' sake, I rubbed their hands with fistfuls of snow; I helped them out of the coats that had stiffened over their bodies, and I kept them a little while standing on the register. Then they came to my desk with their readers and notebooks.
Later I learned that that morning they had made a great scene with their parents, who wanted to prevent their attempting the two miles on foot to school.
With me they were pliant. In their eyes, fixed upon mine, there was complete trust. I presume they would have believed me had I told them that the world was peopled with enemies, that they would have to cherish hatred for many men, even for whole peoples....
But we—all of us together—were warm and happy. The two little ones recited their lessons. Right next to us the gale,
like a misunderstood child, wept and stamped its feet outside the door. And I did not fully realize it yet—often our joys are slow in coming home to us—but I was living through one of the rarest happinesses of my life. Was not all the world a child ? Were we not at the day's morning ? ...
THE AUTHOR
Although her ancestral roots are in the province of Quebec, Gabrielle Roy was born and educated in Manitoba. For a number of years she taught school there, first in a small prairie village and later at the Institut Collegial Provencher at St. Boniface. Along with her literary interests went a talent for acting. She twice took part in plays which won the French trophy at the Dominion Drama Festival, and in 1939 she went abroad to study drama in London.
Throughout this period she wrote, beginning with articles for newspapers and periodicals. In 1945 she published her first novel, Bonheur d'occasion which was to win her international acclaim. (The English version, titled The Tin Flute, appeared two years later.) Among the awards which Miss Roy received for the book were a medal from the French Academy, a prize from the French-Canadian Academy, the Vrix Femina in France, and the Governor-General's Award for Fiction, as well as a membership in the Royal Society of Canada.
Since then she has written a number of other books including Where Nests the Water Hen, 1951 (La petite poule d'eau), The Cashier, 1955 (Alexandre Cheneyert Cassier), The Hidden Mountain, 1962 (La montagne secrete), The Road Vast Altamont, 1966 (La route d'Altamont), and Windflower in 1970. The present volume, which was called Rue Deschambault in the French version won both the Prix Duvernay and the Governor-General's Award for Fiction, and was first published in 1957.
Miss Roy was married in 1947 to Dr. Marcel Carbotte and she and her husband live in Quebec City.
SELECTED NEW CANADIAN LIBRARY TITLES
Asterisks (*) denote titles of New Canadian Library Classics
1. OVER PRAIRIE TRAILS / Frederick Philip Grove
2. SUCH IS MY BELOVED / Morley Callaghan*
3. LITERARY LAPSES / Stephen Leacock
4. AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE / Sinclair Ross*
5. THE TIN FLUTE / Gabrielle Roy*
6. THE CLOCKMAKER / Thomas Chandler Haliburton
7. THE LAST BARRIER AND OTHER STORIES / Charles G. D. Roberts
8 BAROMETER RISING / Hugh MacLennan* 9. AT THE TIDES TURN AND OTHER STORIES / Thomas H. Raddall
10. ARCADIAN ADVENTURES WITH THE IDLE RICH Stephen Leacock
HABITANT POEMS / William Henry Drummond THIRTY ACRES / Ringuet
EARTH AND HIGH heaven Gwethalyn Graham THE MAN FROM GLENGARRY / Ralph Connor SUNSHINE SKETCHES OF A LITTLE town Stephen Leacock* THE STEPSURE LETTERS / Thomas McCulloch MORE JOY IN HEAVEN / Morley Callaghan wild GEESE / Martha Ostenso THE MASTER OF THE MILL / Frederick Philip Grove THE IMPERIALIST / Sara Jeannette Duncan DELIGHT / Mazo de la Roche THE SECOND SCROLL A. M. Klein* THE MOUNTAIN AND THE VALLEY Ernest Buckler* THE RICH MAN Henry Kreisel WHERE NESTS THE WATER HEN Gabrielle Roy THE TOWN BELOW / Roger Lemelin THE HISTORY OF EMILY MONTAGUE Frances Brooke MY DISCOVERY OF ENGLAND Stephen Leacock SWAMP ANGEL / Ethel Wilson* EACH MANS SON / Hugh MacLennan ROUGHING IT IN THE BUSH Susanna Moodie WHITE NARCISSUS / Raymond Knister THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH Morley Callaghan TURVEY / Earle Birnev NONSENSE novels Mephen Leacock GRAIN / R. J. C. Stead LAST OF THE CURLEWS / Fred Bodsworth* THE NYMPH AND THE LAMP Thomas H. Raddall JUDITH HEARNE / Brian Moore THE CASHIER Gabrielle Roy UNDER THE RIBS OF DEATH / John Marlyn WOODSMEN OF THE WEST / M. Allerdale Grainger MOONBEAMS FROM THE LARGER LUNACY / Stephen Leacock
SARAH BINKS / Paul Hiebert
SON OF A SMALLER HERO / Mordecai Richler
WINTER STUDIES AND SUMMER RAMBLES IN CANADA / Anna
Browncll Jameson
n48 FRENZIED FICTION / Stephen Leacock
n49 FRUITS OF THE EARTH /Frederick Philip Grove
n50 SETTLERS OF THE MARSH / Frederick Philip Grove
n51 THE BACKWOODS OF CANADA / Catharine Parr Traill
n52. MUSIC AT THE CLOSE / Edward McCourt
n53 MY REMARKABLE UNCLE / Stephen Leacock
n54. THE DOUBLE HOOK / Sheila Watson*
n55. TIGER DUNLOP'S UPPER CANADA / William Dunlop
n56 STREET OF RICHES / Gabrielle Roy
n57. SHORT CIRCUITS / Stephen Leacock
n58. WACOUSTA /John Richardson
n59. THE STONE ANGEL / Margaret Laurence*
n60. FURTHER FOOLISHNESS / Stephen Leacock
n6I. SAMUEL MARCHBANKS' almanack / Robertson Davies
n62. THE LAMP AT NOON and OTHER STORIES Sinclair Ross
n63. THE HARBOR MASTER / Theodore Goodridge Roberts
n64. THE CANADIAN SETTLERS GUIDE / Catharine Parr Traill
n65 THE GOLDEN DOG / William Kirby
n66 THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ / Mordecai Richler*
n67. BEHIND THE BEYOND / Stephen Leacock
n68. A STRANGE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN A COPPER CYLINDER /
James De Mille
n69. LAST LEAVES / Stephen Leacock
n70. THE TOMORROW-TAMER / Margaret Laurence
n71. ODYSSEUS EVER RETURNING / George Woodcock
n72. THE CURE OF ST PHILIPPE / Francis William Grey
n73. THE FAVOURITE GAME / Leonard Cohen
n74. winnowed WISDOM / Stephen Leacock
n75. THE SEATS OF THE MIGHTY / Gilbert Parker
n76. A SEARCH FOR AMERICA / Frederick Philip Grove
n77. THE BETRAYAL / Henry Kreisel
n78. MAD SHADOWS / Marie-Claire Blais
n79. THE INCOMPARABLE ATUK / Mordecai Richler
n80 THE LUCK OF GINGER COFFEY / Brian Moore*
n81. JOHN SUTHERLAND: ESSAYS. CONTROVERSIES AND POEMS /
Miriam Waddington
n82 PEACE SHALL DESTROY many / Rudy Henry Wiebe
n83. A VOICE FROM THE ATTIC / Robertson Davies
n84. PROCHAIN EPISODE / Hubert Aquin
n85 ROGER SUDDEN / Thomas H Raddall
n86 MIST ON THE RIVER / Hubert Evans
n87 THE FIRE-DWELLERS / Margaret Laurence*
n88. THE DESERTER / Douglas LePan
n89 ANTOINETTE DE MIRECOURT Rosanna Leprohon
n90. ALLEGRO Felix Leclerc
n91 THE END OF THE WORLD AND OTHER STORIES Mavis
Gallant
n92. IN THE VILLAGE OF VIGER AND OTHER STORIES Duncan
Campbell Scott
n93 THE EDIBLE woman Margaret Atwood
n94 IN SEARCH OF MYSELF / Frederick Philip Grove
n95 FEAST OF STEPHEN / Robertson Davies
n% A BIRD IN THE HOUSE Margaret Laurence
n97. THE WOOD! N sword Edward McCourt
n99. OX BELLS AND FIREFLIES / Ernest Buckler
nlOO. ABOVE GROUND / Jack Ludwig
nlOl. NEW PRIEST IN CONCEPTION BAY / Robert Traill Spence
Lowell
nl02. THE FLYING YEARS / Frederick Niven
nl03. WIND WITHOUT RAIN / Selwyn Dewdney
nl04. TETE BLANCHE / Marie-Claire Blais
nl05. TAY JOHN / Howard O'Hagan
nl06. CANADIANS OF OLD / Philippe Aubert de Gaspe. Translated
by Sir Charles G. D. Roberts
CANADIAN LITERATURE / Archibald
MacMechan
nl08. THE BLUE MOUNTAINS OF CHINA / Rudy Wiebe
nl09. THE HIDDEN MOUNTAIN / Gabrielle Roy
nl 10. THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD / Charles G. D. Roberts
n 111. A JEST OF GOD / Margaret Laurence
n 112. SELF CONDEMNED / Wyndham Lewis
nl 13. DUST OVER THE CITY / Andre Langevin
nl 14. OUR DAILY BREAD / Frederick Philip Grove
nl 15. THE CANADIAN NOVEL IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY / edited
by George Woodcock
nl 16. THE VIKING HEART / Laura Goodman Salverson
nl 17. DOWN THE LONG TABLE / Earle Birney
nl 18. GLENGARRY SCHOOL DAYS / Ralph Connor
nl 19. THE PLOUFFE FAMILY / Roger Lemelin
nl20. WINDFLOWER / Gabrielle Roy
n 121. THE DISINHERITED / Matt Cohen
nl22. THE TEMPTATIONS OF BIG BEAR / Rudy Wiebe
nl23. PANDORA / Sylvia Fraser
n 124. HOUSE OF HATE / Percy Janes
nl25. A CANDLE TO LIGHT THE SUN / Patricia Blondal
nl26. THIS SIDE JORDAN / Margaret Laurence
nl27. THE RED FEATHERS / T. G. Roberts
nl28. I AM MARY DUNNE / Brian Moore
n!29. THE ROAD PAST ALTAMONT / Gabrielle Roy
nl30. KNIFE ON THE TABLE / Jacques Godbout
nl31. THE MANAWAKA WORLD OF MARGARET LAURENCE / Clara
Thomas
nl32. CONSIDER HER WAYS / Frederick Philip Grove
nl33. HIS MAJESTY'S YANKEES / Thomas Raddall
nl34. JEAN RIVARD / Antoine Gerin-Lajoie
nl35. BOGLE CORBET / John Gait
nl36. A CHOICE OF ENEMIES / Mordecai Richler
nl37. RESPONSES AND EVALUATIONS: ESSAYS ON CANADA / E. K.
Brown
nl38. THE MASTER'S WIFE / Sir Andrew Macphail
nl39. THE CRUELEST MONTH / Ernest Buckler
nl40. THE ATONEMENT OF ASHLEY MORDEN / Fred Bodsworth
nl41. wild ANIMALS I HAVE KNOWN / Ernest Thompson Seton
nl42. SCANN / Robert Harlow
nl43. ON POETRY AND POETS / A. J. M. Smith
nl44. crackpot / Adele Wiseman
n!45. sawbones memorial / Sinclair Ross n!46. the diviners / Margaret Laurence
n!47. HIGH BRIGHT BUGGY WHEELS / Luella Crcighton
n!48. big lonely / James Bacque
nl50. gods sparrows / Philip Child
n!51. theoutlander / Germaine Guevremont
nl52. THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES AND OTHER ESSAYS BY
mordecai richler / edited by Robert Fulford n!53. beautiful losers / Leonard Cohen nl54. the emperor of icecream / Brian Moore
nl55. GARDEN IN THE WIND and ENCHANTED SUMMER / Gabricllc Roy
n!56. the scorched wood people / Rudy Wiebe n!57. the lost salt gift of blood / Alistair MacLeod nl58. lord nelson tavern / Ray Smith n!59. everything in the window / Shirley Faessler
n 160. THE CAMERA ALWAYS LIES / Hugh Hood
n!61. the selena tree / Patricia Joudry
n!62. watchers at the pond / Franklin Russell
n!63. two in the bush*and other stories / Audrey Thomas
n!64. bloody harvest / Grahame Woods
n!65. the neighbour and other stories / Nairn Kattan
nl66. the manuscripts of Pauline archange / Marie-Claire Blais
nl67. sandbars / Oonah McFee
nl68. selected stories / John Metcalf
nl69. THE ANGEL OF THE TAR SANDS AND OTHER STORIES / Rudy
Wiebe
n!70. THE INNOCENT TRAVELLER / Ethel Wilson
n!71. THE SWEET SECOND SUMMER OF KITTY MALONE / Matt Cohen
nl72. bear / Marian Engel
nl73. spirit wrestler / James Houston
nl74. the coming of winter / David Adams Richards
nl75. five legs and communion / Graeme Gibson
nl76. laugh with leacock / Stephen Leacock
n!77. the book of eve / Constance Beresford-Howe
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