Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack

Background

Davies created the Samuel Marchbanks character whilst editor of the Peterborough Examiner newspaper in the small city of Peterborough, Ontario, northeast of Toronto. He wrote the first column under the Marchbanks pseudonym in 1944.

Davies first started work on Samuel Marchbanks' Almanack in 1953, but the manuscript was rejected by his publisher, Clarke Irwin. Davies filed the rejected manuscript away, not to return to it for a decade. He resubmitted it for publication in 1966, this time choosing McClelland and Stewart as the prospective publisher. The book is presented in the form of an almanac, based on the signs of the Zodiac.

Reception

Jacqueline Hayes, writing in the Waterloo Region Record, compared the book to the previous Marchbanks books, found the work lacking. She thought that when it wasn't "so low-keyed as to be slumber-inducing", it was too "esoteric" in an uninteresting way. The Toronto Star's Robert Fulford found it strange how little seemed to have changed in Marchbanks' world since the original 40s books, giving the work a "a charm that is, at best, antique".

References

References

1. (13 July 1968). "Graphica 68 on view at Design Canada Centre". The Montreal Star.
2. (2 December 1967). "Marchbanks on the Passing Scene". The Ottawa Journal.
3. (21 October 1967). "Davies' Almanack Less than Stimulating". Waterloo Region Record.
4. (17 October 1967). "The Special Charm of Peanut Butter". The Toronto Star.