Hugh Garner

Photo courtesy of Cabbage- town people

Hugh Garner was born in Yorkshire in 1913, came to Canada as a child, and grew up in poor parts of Toronto during the Dirty Thirties. Like others did then, he "rode the rails" around Canada, the US and Mexico, catching free rides.

He was a prolific journalist, novelist, reviewer and short story writer. In addition to a hundred short stories and seventeen books, he also wrote for radio and television. Marc Fortin of Queen's University describes Garner as "argumentative," but also says he was "respected for his ability to produce controversial and timely pieces."

Garner led a life of gritty adventure. A socialist who called himself a "one-man union," Garner portrayed working-class Ontario in a realistic style. He acted on his convictions by volunteering to serve in the Spanish Civil war. Later, he also served in World War II.

In Garner's beautifully drawn short story "Hunky," a young Polish labourer with lofty dreams works on a tobacco farm in southern Ontario. Hunky is seen through the eyes of his co-worker George, a deeply flawed narrator--a middle-aged alcoholic too weak to fight directly against the injustice he sees practiced on Hunky, although he strongly disagrees with it. Workers being victimized is a typical Garner theme.

Novels include Storm Below (1949) and Cabbagetown (1950). Garner quarreled with Jack McClelland of McClelland and Stewart over The Silence on the Shore (1962), then moved to other publishers. In 1963, his short story collection won the Governor General's Award. He died in 1979.