Morley Callaghan: Essays, Reviews, Meditations and Talks 1928–1990

A master of the short story and author of several excellent novels, Morley Callaghan has long been a writer of international reputation. Callaghan was born and raised in Toronto, educated at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and Osgoode Hall Law school. Working as a reporter for the Toronto Daily Star, he met Ernest Hemingway who was also working with the newspaper. In 1929, the same year as his first volume of short stories, Native Argosy, was published, Callaghan traveled to Paris, where he became reacquainted with Hemingway and met James Joyce and F. Scott Fitzgerald. That Summer in Paris (1963) contains Callaghan's memoirs of his experiences with these famous expatriates. Morley Callaghan is renowned for the clarity and economy of his prose. While Callaghan's work appears forthright and uncomplicated, each of the novels focuses on a character who faces a crisis. How this turning point is handled determines the direction the character's life will take. Callaghan, who was a devout Catholic, saw himself as a moralist as well as one who gave "shape and form to human experience." While some critics may question the merit of Callaghan's novels, they generally agree that his short stories will endure.

Morley Callaghan was a prolific writer of fiction and literary criticism and a friend to Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ezra Pound.