2 Quotes & Sayings By M Scott Verne
M. Scott Verne was born in Durham, Ontario in 1942, and grew up in Toronto. During his childhood and teenage years, he wrote and illustrated his own stories, which were published widely in Canadian children's magazines and newspapers. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1965 and a Master's degree from the University of London in 1968
In 1969 he began teaching creative writing at York University and later served as an Associate Professor from 1973 to 1995. In 1971 he published his first book, A House for Mr. Biswas, a novel based on his experiences teaching creative writing to Caribbean immigrants at a Toronto high school.
In 1974 he founded the literary journal The Malahat Review, which continues today as a quarterly journal of literature and art. His next novel, The Bassoon King (1976), was awarded the Commonwealth Prize for Literature in Canada and was later made into a film of the same name starring Christopher Plummer. In 1978 he published his first non-fiction book, The Writer's Book of Days, a work about how writers organize their days to get words onto paper.
He has since written other non-fiction titles including The Writer's Survival Kit (1987) and The Meaning of Life: An Anthology of Philosophical Answers to the Ultimate Questions (1995). In 1983 he co-founded the Writers' Trust of Canada with Charles Gordon. He is best known for writing novels about the lives of Caribbean immigrants living in Canada.
By 1990 he had written six novels featuring Dr. Bim Adewunmi: The Garden Party (1962); The Wedding Feast (1963); The Master Cleanser (1964); Ceremony (1970); A House for Mr. Biswas (1971); The Bassoon King (1976); and Two Lives (1985).
Three more titles featuring Dr. Bim Adewunmi were published posthumously: Life Line (2004), A House for Mr. Biswas Revisited (2008), and A Change of Air (2009).