Preface

The Lines of the Poet is a traditional formal object and yet the manifestation of an event which lasted two years, required much travelling and directly involved many people. Its vocabulary and materials were carefully researched. The rigorous technical standards are evident in the colophon. I travelled from coast to coast generally drawing the poets in the intimacy of their own homes. They in turn had to sit --- an intense situation demanding much from both artist and model.

When the publishers approached me to do this project, we decided the portraits had to be done from life in an original graphic form, namely as lithographs. D.G.Jones agreed to edit the book --- selecting the poets and their respective poems. In principle the poets were asked to sit for three days. The form of the book was established after consulting with David Carruthers, Pierre Guillaume and Pierre Ouvrard. Knowing that most of the of the drawings would be done on the road, I had begun to research an appropriate technique using lithographic materials on transfer paper, a method which proved to be flexible and portable.

Marc St.Pierre got permission from Laval University to use their graphic studio in Quebec City. There we finalized the technology. Doug Jones was in communication with the poets and for the next two years, we kept track of their whereabouts --- first to organise the drawing expeditions and later to have them sign their texts. Some of these poets were old friends of mine but many were people I had not met. Jones, Scott, Cohen, Layton and Gustafson were among poets I had drawn for Dorothy Livesay's magazine, C V II.

Doug Jones was the first subject. We worked on the lawn at his home in North Hatley, where we discovered that the best way to keep the wind from blowing away was to weigh them down with glasses of whiskey.

A. J. M. Smith, although very ill, agreed to sit at his summer home at Drummond Point. The following summer Doug and I visited him and showed him the proofs of many of the portraits --- he found them all "fierce". He was too ill to sign the 130 copies of his poem; his are the only copies unsigned.

With these two drawings done, I went to Quebec City, where Marc St. Pierre and I proofed them --- a painstaking procedure wherein all the final details are resolved on the lithographic stone. It was then on to Fredericton to meet Alden Nowlan, who declared "I don't care what my portrait looks like as long as I look better than Al Purdy". I returned directly to Quebec City and we proofed Alden's portrait. This was the pattern that we were to follow, one or two drawings, then a session with Marc in the graphic studio.

That summer I drew Ralph Gustafson. He gave me a copy of a poem he had written about Jacob Epstein, whom he had known in England, I also started a drawing of Frank Scott which was to take a year and many sittings to complete."I've given you as much of my face as I can," he gently remarked.

On Labour Day weekend, I went to Ameliasburg, where Al and Eurithe Purdy received me despite the fact they were in the midst of major household renovations. Al stubbornly refused to remove his glasses. I later discovered he only does so when playing billiards. The final drawing was done a year later on a second visit.

Irving Layton's portrait also required two visits. Despite the fact that I had drawn him before and know him to be a great model, I did countless drawings that were all bad. I returned a year later with Leonard Cohen for a two day visit and succeeded in drawing Irving while he, Harriet and Leonard sat around talking.

Earle Birney sat for me at his apartment in Toronto, Leonard Cohen at my home in Montreal. Meanwhile Marc St.Pierre had accepted a teaching position at the Swain School of Art and Design in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Each time I had a couple of drawings, I would drive to New Bedford with Violet Schwarzmann, who along with Marc was very helpful in the final editing of the images. It took days to proof each one. We worked with two stones throughout most of the project.After proofing we would return to Montreal and Marc would pull the edition and then efface the image so that we could use the same stones for the next session.

In May of 1980, I flew to Victoria. P.K.Page, herself an accomplished artist as well as a poet, was very supportive. Her drawing was actually done during an official break in the modeling.

I drew Phyllis Webb at her home on Salt Spring Island and on my return stopped in Regina to draw John Newlove. When I completed his portrait he had the last word by drawing several portraits of me. Margaret Atwood caught up on her correspondence while I drew her at her farm in Alliston. I spent three days at Michael Ondaatje's in Toronto. When we were finished work one day, we went to a Willy Nelson film and Michael has a story about how I fell asleep and snored through the whole movie. Throughout the project I was struck by the solidarity of the people involved. I would particularly like to thank Claudine Nowlan, Eurithe Purdy, Harriet Layton, Arthur Irwin, Susan Newlove, Graeme Gibson, Carolyn Moulton, Marian Scott, Monique Baril-Jones and Nicole St.Pierre for their hospitality --- and of course, the poets for their patience and good humour.

Morton Rosengarten
(signed)


NOTE : It proved impractical to reproduce the text from the book for the Preface, the Introduction and the Colophon for the website.These were retyped and are in Times New Roman Bold rather than the original Kennerley Old Style. Our apologies to Pierre Guillaume. The poems are reproduced from photographs taken of a copy of the original book and are in Kennerley Old Style. See Colophon.