If I Could Turn and Meet Myself: The Life of Alden Nowlan

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities:
British Views of Canada, 1880–1914, and the author of The Salvation
Army and the Public.

Impeccably researched and wonderfully revealing, If I Could Turn and
Meet Myself is everything a biography should be. Born into poverty to a
teenage mother, Alden Nowlan first lived with his maternal grandmother
and then with his paternal grandmother until she died of cancer. His
formal education ended at age 14 when he had to go to work in a sawmill.
But Nowlan, an avid reader, continued educating himself, spending much
time consuming library books and the Bible. He began his writing career
at 19 when he landed a job at the Hartland, New Brunswick, Observer, and
continued writing until his death in 1983.

Alden Nowlan was a respected fiction writer, newspaper columnist,
playwright, and one of Canada’s best poets (his book of poems, Bread,
Wine and Salt, won the 1967 Governor General’s Award). The honorary
degree he received from the University of New Brunswick in 1971
testifies to the esteem in which he was held in his lifetime.

Patrick Toner, who clearly admires his subject, discusses the
autobiographical underpinnings of Nowlan’s poetry and fiction, and the
persona he created to deflect attention from his essential self. This
thoroughly engaging biography, which portrays a fascinating and complex
figure, allows us to look at the man—and his poetry—with fresh eyes.