Oblomov
14th June 2007, 10:52
I think a lot of us readers have almost accidentally stumbled across stories by some relatively unknown author - one that captured our imagination and made us go all out to try and get his ot her other works. If you have any such hidden favourites, please let us know about them.
My own is an obscure Canadian writer called Thomas H Raddall, who lived and worked in Nova Scotia in the first half of the 20th century. He was actually born in Kent, but his family moved to Halifax around the turn of the 20th century. Raddall is well known and respected in Nova Scotia (there is a Library and instiute dedicated to him in Halifax), but hardly anyone knows him outside his province. His stories are mostly short fictional and non-fictional works of early to middle white Canadian settlers and their interaction with each other and the 'Micmac' natives. Despite this narrow field from which he operated, Raddall had a very human way of depicting his characters (similar to Somerst Maugham in some ways) that I found (and still do) fascinating. He gave the impression of being distinctly ahead of his times in his attitude to racial and sexual discrimination and often wove interesting stories around wafer-thin plotlines (there is one centered completely around a river ferry crossing, for example).
I first read one of Thomas Raddall's stories in a 1982 issue of Reader's Digest where his "The Reluctant Bride" was published as a fiction feature. It took me almost 15 more years to find another story by him, but I now have a good collection.
My own is an obscure Canadian writer called Thomas H Raddall, who lived and worked in Nova Scotia in the first half of the 20th century. He was actually born in Kent, but his family moved to Halifax around the turn of the 20th century. Raddall is well known and respected in Nova Scotia (there is a Library and instiute dedicated to him in Halifax), but hardly anyone knows him outside his province. His stories are mostly short fictional and non-fictional works of early to middle white Canadian settlers and their interaction with each other and the 'Micmac' natives. Despite this narrow field from which he operated, Raddall had a very human way of depicting his characters (similar to Somerst Maugham in some ways) that I found (and still do) fascinating. He gave the impression of being distinctly ahead of his times in his attitude to racial and sexual discrimination and often wove interesting stories around wafer-thin plotlines (there is one centered completely around a river ferry crossing, for example).
I first read one of Thomas Raddall's stories in a 1982 issue of Reader's Digest where his "The Reluctant Bride" was published as a fiction feature. It took me almost 15 more years to find another story by him, but I now have a good collection.