Sunday Morning with Cass: Conversations with AJ Casson

Patricia Morley is professor emeritus of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University and the author of Margaret Laurence: The Long
Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

A.J. Casson (b. 1898), of Canada’s legendary Group of Seven, was its
youngest member and the last survivor. These informal talks with
advertising executive Ted Herriott began in 1988 and continued to
December 1991. The painter’s anecdotes range over his lifetime, but
many are current. In his 90s, Casson retained a fairly good memory and
enjoyed talking about The Group, about his love of watercolor, and about
the small Ontario towns that became his favorite subjects. The book
contains far more text than illustrations, but there are archival
photographs of family and friends, and reproductions of a few of
Casson’s sketches, paintings, and silk screen prints.

With a painter of Casson’s importance, even trivia has its place in
the record. There is no shortage of trivia here, as the talk ranges over
the Canadian art world, the gallery scene, and friends famous and
obscure. Frederick Varley is remembered at his 88th (and last) birthday
party, where Casson was scandalized to find that his old colleague did
not know who he was. A.Y. Jackson is recalled amid a jumble of tax
receipts; Casson believed that Jackson made more money on stocks than on
his paintings (a very Canadian irony). The talks would of course have
been different, and sharper, had they taken place earlier. As it is,
they will be enjoyed by those with an insatiable interest in Casson and
The Group.

Revenues from the publication will help support the Friends of A.J.
Casson Fund for Alzheimer’s Research in Toronto. Casson’s wife,
Margaret, succumbed to this disease in her final years.