In Memoriam
Bradford Robinson 1942-2009
Bradford Robinson, writer, raconteur, carpenter, critic, and poet, died on November 28, 2009 in Vancouver, B.C. at the age of 67. He died in the palliative care ward of St. Paul’s Hospital of complications from cancer.
Robinson was born Alfred John Bradford Petrie, March 18, 1942 in Victoria, B.C. He was a columnist and critic for The Georgia Straight (1970-1972),reporter and columnist for the Comox Valley Star (1973-1974) and Campbell River Mirror (1974-1975),the publisher and editor of Robinson’s Fortnightly (1977), and the publisher of The Wombledon Programmes (1977-1997). He authored numerous works of short fiction and poetry. His publications include The Rainpipe Poems (1970), Thank Goodness You Called (1971), As Far As The Music Will Go (1972), Afternoon Tea (1986), The Point Petre Notes: A Country Journal (1986), and The Walking Wife Series--A Lunch in Bangkok (2008). Two unpublished manuscripts remain, a book of poetry, Four Decades (1982), and a novel, Isobel Burnett (2009).
Love of Literature and Music
Robinson was passionate about literature, classical music, politics and good conversation. He read widely, yet his recent literary interests returned to earlier favourite authors, such as Ford Madox Ford, Graham Greene, and Virginia Woolf. One of his great joys in the past year was rereading The Count of Monte Cristo.
He found his own literary voice in the lives of people he knew, setting stories in the environs of the Comox Valley, the streets of Toronto, the jungle of B.C. politics, and the soi of Thailand. His prose sparkled with a sardonic and observant wit that burnished ordinary lives with an amusing gleam. His poetry was more complex. The major theme was love of one kind or another, and he often used nature metaphorically to illuminate the tensions found there. From The Walking Wife Series: “the moss of trees and rocks/the taste of a spring/satisfying a thirst/such is her contrary way/and we are often contrary/contrary to what other people say.”
A major influence on Robinson’s early prose was Raymond Chandler. Robinson was one of the few critics in the 1970s to view Chandler as a serious novelist and not simply a pulp fiction writer. Here is Robinson in his serial novella, The Stiff in the Country Cadillac: “…what could be finer than a beautiful spring afternoon, the prospect of a good evening with good booze and good friends and maybe a good woman to spend the night with. Maybe the pain and anguish will come with age but right now, this moment, man, is all that concerns me and I like to make them count.”
Vancouver poet Gerry Gilbert, who passed away in June, was a long-time friend and mentor.
An important influence in later years was the British Columbia novelist Ethel Wilson. Robinson’s last novel, Isobel Burnett, reflects elements of her writing style.Classical music occupied a spot as close to Robinson’s heart as literature. Mahler and Ravel meant a great deal to him, but nothing rivaled the love he had for the music of Erik Satie. Robinson once referred to Ciccolini’s interpretations of Satie as “… the most beautiful poetry in the world.”