An important exhibit of the work of Canadian architect Arthur Erickson runs at the Vancouver Art Gallery this summer. The author who turned the world's spotlight on the man is still writing from her home in Garden Bay. Edith Iglauer, now 89, wrote a definitive article about Erickson for the prestigious New Yorker magazine in 1979 -it was an astounding 44 pages long. Her writing, like her life, is characterized by rampant curiosity and the good journalistic training acquired at the New Yorker.
"I was working on that profile while I lived here in Pender Harbour, on the boat," she recalls, a period of time she would later describe in her book Fish-ing with John. She had visited the West Coast in 1968 with her two sons. A friend suggested she travel up Burnaby Mountain to see the new building, Simon Fraser University. She was dazzled and had to know, at once, who had designed it. The answer was Arthur Erickson. She knew she must meet him and write about him. In 1981, she elaborated on her original article in a book, Seven Stones: A Portrait of Arthur Erickson, Architect, one of the first full-colour books for Harbour Publishing.
Iglauer is naturally happy that her book is showing a resurgence of interest based on the Vancouver Art Gallery show, and these days she has another reason to smile. Last February, she married Frank White, 92, father of colleague Howard White, after a courtship of 20 years. Though, as they pointed out in their wedding announcement, the collective age of the wedded couple is 178, the mention of her new husband still causes Iglauer to smile prettily like a bride of 18.Iglauer was born in Ohio, and lived in New York for 30 years. She attended Columbia University's Journalism School, became a war correspondent and married New Yorker editor Philip Hamburger, who urged her to pitch ideas to the magazine. You were paid for ideas in those days, she recalls. Soon, she started work on Talk of the Town, a regular column, until the day an exhibit of Canadian Inuit art arrived in New York.
"My son always tells me that I have rampant curiosity," she remarks. Indeed, one of her first pieces for the New Yorker in 1956 asked the question: how could fresh raspberries be sold in New York in winter? "I wanted to find out why," became her motto. Her curiosity about the art show prompted her to conversation with a Department of North-ern Affairs representative who told her about life up north and asked if she would like to accompany them on their spring patrol."He hadn't seen a line I'd written at that point," she says, "but he invited me anyway." The rest is history. That first trip to Baffin Island was one of many, and Iglauer became one of the first Americans to observe and interpret the Canadian Arctic, much to the chagrin of Canadians. After the first Arctic piece appeared, she was phoned by a complete stranger, the late Peter Gzowski, editor and CBC broadcaster, who wanted to talk to her. "We hate you," he told her. "You know more about Canada than we know."
Around the same time, Iglauer and her husband divorced, though the two have remained friends ever since. She had to get out of New York.
"I was suddenly lonely and all I knew was work," she said.
It was time for another visit to the Arctic, this time to Yellowknife, where she met the man who became the subject of another book, John Denison of Denison's Ice Road.
Her editor, William Shawn, supported her in these travels: "'Write about what you see,' he told me, and that's what I did."
Iglauer's style is lean and journalistic, etched with minute observation. "I was very well trained at the New Yorker not to put out my own opinion. There was no better training at that time." Her credits also include Atlantic Monthly, Macleans, Harper's and New York Herald Tribune and Post.
During her many visits to Canada she made a lifetime of friends. One of them pointed her in the direction of Pender Harbour where she met a commercial salmon fisherman, John Daly. She discovered that she loved being on his boat and sent stories of her fishing life back to New York. Soon the two became a couple and she settled into the Garden Bay home where Daly built her an office in a waterfront shed. Unfortunately, the two had only a few years together. Daly died suddenly in 1978 and she felt the loss. One of her first friends on the Coast, Howard White, encouraged her to stay in the Garden Bay community. In the years to follow, she documented her life with Daly in a Canadian best seller, Fishing with John (Harbour Publishing, 1988.) It was short listed for the Governor General's Award.
"To my surprise, people called it a love story. I thought I was writing a technical book about fishing."
Iglauer's friendship with Arthur Erickson has lasted to this day. She felt confident in writing architectural articles because of her previous detailed account of the construction of the United Nations building and of New York's twin towers. Erickson accepted her interest and gave freely of his time during her lengthy visits to his home. While he made omelettes, she asked questions. Contractors had just dug the first hole for the courthouse complex at Robson Square, the architectural masterpiece that would incite controversy and make Erickson a household name.
Iglauer describes him as "a witty, semi-mystical, not at all humble man." Her book has been described variously as a warm, enthusiastic portrait or an uncritical, cream puff sketch. "Hmmph," snorts Iglauer of her critics, "I did say in the book that his buildings leak."
These days, Iglauer is enjoying publishing shorter, lighter pieces in the Vancouver magazine Geist. She is also working on her memoirs - the story of her rich writing life.
