Sweat Equity

This unique exchange of letters between literary icon Sinclair Ross and several prominent writers, publishers, agents, and editors asks why many Canadian artists, especially those in western provinces, spent a lifetime struggling for recognition and remuneration. Featuring exchanges with Earle Birney, Margaret Laurence, and Margaret Atwood, among others, this collection exposes the conditions of cultural work in Canada for much of the twentieth century. This vivid, often moving, selection of professional and personal letters, plus the only formal interview Ross ever gave, provides a valuable resource for those engaged with the history of publishing in Canada, as well as for those with an interest in Canadian literature.

B&W photographs, appendix, biographical chronology, index

Sharpe C.A. :

Chris Sharpe is Professor Emeritus of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. During his 40-year career at MUNL, he pursued an interest in urban landscapes and housing. He is co-author of Sweat Equity: Cooperative House-Building in Newfoundland, 1920–1974.

Shawyer A.J. :

Jo Shawyer is a retired Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. Throughout her career she has explored the dynamic character of cultural landscapes — their creation, maintenance, and change. Employing both field work and archival research, Jo has studied landscapes personal and public, urban and rural, historical and contemporary. She is co-author of Sweat Equity: Cooperative House-Building in Newfoundland, 1920–1974.

Chris Sharpe is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, now living on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, where he is continuing his research on Churchill Park and the Second World War cultural landscape of St. John's. Jo Shawyer is a retired Associate Professor, Memorial University. In addition to her academic publications, she writes historical fiction for young adults. During her career Jo has researched and written about many kinds of cultural landscapes: rural and urban, modern and traditional, personal and public.

Iqbal Hamiduddin, Planning Perspectives:

"An impeccably detailed chronicle of the rise of Newfoundland’s housing cooperatives... Sweat Equity should be required reading for the many individuals and groups interested in taking a different approach to house building.”

L. J. Evenden, The Canadian Geographer:

"Two decades and more have been invested in this project... The result is a clearly written, tightly presented, and extensively referenced account"