Timothy Irving is a writer who lives in the United Frederick Findley is a well-known modern Canadian author. His writings are extremely diverse in terms of genre and point of view, but they always deal with the same basic concerns. As a writer, he was adamant that literature should never be banned because its ideals were inscribed in pushing the boundaries. Informally known as ‘Tiffy,’ he released a number of notable compilations of his writings throughout the course of his forty-year career. He authored a number of well-known plays based on Shakespeare’s works and took part in Canada’s yearly Stratford Shakespearean Festival. Timothy’s writings reflected a ‘Southern Ontario Gothic’ style, a subgenre of Gothic, and were heavily influenced by Jungian psychology (Carl Jung’s school of psychology), with recurring themes of mental illness, gender, and sexuality. For his works, he created dark protagonists who frequently harbored dark secrets and suffered from a variety of psychological problems.
Childhood and Adolescence
He was born into a wealthy Toronto household to stockbroker Allan Gilmour Findley and his wife Margaret Maude Bull. He grew up in Toronto’s Rosedale district, in a wealthy neighborhood.
He went to St. Andrews College for boarding school, but due to health issues, he had to drop out after the ninth grade. He went on to study the arts, dance, and acting, and had a successful acting career for a short time.
He became a member of the Stratford Festival company (a Shakespeare production) in the 1950s, which put on annual theatre festivals. As a result of his collaboration with Sir Alec Guinness, he featured on both the English and American stages.
In ‘Sunshine Sketches,’ he played ‘Peter Pumpkin,’ in the television adaptation of Stephen Leacock’s ‘Sunshine Sketches of a little town.’
Timothy Findley’s Career
In the 1970s, he worked on various documentary projects with writer Bill Whitehead, including a television mini-series based on Pierre Berton’s book “The National Dream.”
In the 1960s, he published his first short story in the ‘Tamarack Review,’ a Canadian literary magazine. He took up writing more actively after seeing his work published and receiving support from a close friend, and he eventually developed into a great writer.
He was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1985. He was also a founder member of the Canadian Writers’ Union. In addition, he was named president of the PEN International Canadian chapter.
‘The Wars’ (1977), ‘Famous last words (1981), ‘Not wanted on the voyage’ (1984), ‘Dinner along the Amazon’ (1984), ‘The telling of lies’ (1986), ‘Stones’ (1988), ‘Inside Memory: Pages from a writer’s notebook’ (1990), ‘Any time at all and other stories’ (1993), as well as the novels ‘Headhunter’ (1993), ‘The piano man (1999).
His Major Projects
After being rejected by Canadian publishers, his first two novels, ‘The last of the mad people’ (1967) and ‘the butterfly plague’ (1969), were published in the United Kingdom and the United States. Both of these books are set in the state of California. These are extremely well-written, with a wide range of language and a detailed writing style.
He wrote radio and television scripts, as well as the play ‘Can you see me yet?’ in the early 1970s. It was followed by the publication of two of his most celebrated novels, ‘The Wars’ (1977), which was later turned into a film in 1981, and ‘Famous Last Words,’ both of which were critically lauded (1981).
He wrote a lot of plays. ‘Elizabeth Rex,’ which premiered at the Stratford Festival of Canada, is the most famous of them all. This play was a tremendous smash, and he received a lot of praise for it. Among his plays, ‘Shadows’ was his last finished piece.
‘From the stone orchard,’ a collection of Findley’s Harrowsmith columns, was published in 1998. It’s a narrative of Findley’s time at Stone Orchard in Cannington, Ontario, where he resided with his boyfriend William Whitehead.
Achievements & Awards
He and his colleague William Whitehead won an ACTRA award for scriptwriting for ‘The National Dream’ in 1975. The series focused on the late-nineteenth-century concept and building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
For his novel ‘The Wars’ (1977), which was based on the First World War, he got a Governor General’s prize for fiction. In 2000, he won the same award in the drama category for his adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Elizabeth Rex.’
He was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1986.
He won the ‘Trillium Book Award’ in 1988 for his collection of nine stories, ‘Stones,’ which depicts the realities of current relationships and elicits emotions.
In 1991, he was awarded membership in the ‘Order of Ontario,’ the province’s highest official honor.
For his major contribution to literature, he was granted a Chevalier De L’Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres by the French government in 1996.
He was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2002 in recognition of his achievements and accomplishments in the realm of Canadian literature.
His Personal Life
He married actress and photographer Janet Reid in 1959, but the marriage only lasted three months before terminating in divorce.
While working as an art reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1962, he met writer William Whitehead. In the 1970s, William became his partner and worked on various documentary projects with him. Until Findley’s death in 2002, the two remained close pals.
Estimated Net worth
Timothy is one of the wealthiest playwrights and one of the most well-known playwrights. Timothy Findley’s net worth is estimated to be $9 million, according to Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider.
Trivia
His play, “Elizabeth Rex,” was nominated for an Equity Joseph Jefferson award for play production in 2012.