Montreal Standard Time: The Early Journalism of Mavis Gallant

Montreal Standard Time is drawn from Mavis Gallant’s columns in The Montreal Standard during her six-year tenure at the newspaper, beginning in 1944, when she was 22. Gallant reported on an extraordinary range of subjects: labour issues, mining, existentialism, immigration, comedy, mercy killings, feminism, and suffrage. Her journalism is peopled by a rich cast of characters: writers, painters, politicians, criminals, street kids, war brides, refugees, and unwed mothers. Eighty years after they first saw the light of day, the columns remain as fresh as ever.

Written with a precision, flair, and wit that would become her trademark, Montreal Standard Time is journalism of the first order. Taken together, the pieces create a remarkable portrait of Montreal in the eventful years during and after WW2, and of a young woman, fiercely independent and politically active, making her way through it. The book also corrects a long-standing gap in the Gallant oeuvre. Her celebrated reporting on the student riots in Paris in 1968 and on the Gabrielle Russier case are brilliant examples of her in-depth journalism. But that, and her insightful reviews and occasional pieces, have already been collected. Her earliest reporting from The Montreal Standard, however, has never circulated or appeared in book form.

Edited by Neil Besner, Marta Dvorak, and Bill Richardson, with a preface by Mary K. MacLeod, Montreal Standard Time is indispensable not only for the light it throws on Gallant’s time and place, but in how it reveals a major writer coming into her powers.

Reviews

“Canadian and Montreal history nerds, journalism fans (especially those nostalgic for its golden years), and the literary crowd familiar with Gallant’s straightforward prose and killer wit are all bound to find something to love amid these 38 articles…. What Besner, Dvorák, and Richardson have created with this book is an ingenious time capsule of a city and country as experienced through the smart, empathetic, and feminist viewpoint of Mavis Gallant.” -Roxane Hudon, Montreal Review of Books

“What becomes obvious after only a few chapters of this selection from the early journalism of Mavis Gallant is that she was a fully formed writer already in 1944, when she got her first—and it will turn out, only—full-time media job, in the nationally distributed weekly, the Montreal Standard.” -Lydia Perovic, The Hub

“On topics from refugees to unwed mothers, and from rising stars of Quebec literature to why Canadians are so dull, the articles reveal a budding talent with boundless curiosity and a razor-sharp wit.” -Marian Scott, Montreal Gazette

“The writing is ever clear and engaging, and even bravely offbeat for the times and the publication they appeared in. … Collectively, the pieces provide revealing glimpses of a gifted writer-to-be.” -Douglas J. Johnstone, Winnipeg Free Press

“Montreal Standard Time is a compelling entry into the canon of Mavis Gallant. Depending on what you’re looking for, there is much you might see: the emergence of a developing artist; the origins of future stories; a struggling nation; a historical sense of life in post-WWII Montreal; and, most of all, keenly perceptive and enjoyable writing from a writer who, at least in her later fiction, is a bit hard to see.” -Sean Bernard, Full Stop