Canadian author A.S.A. Harrison dies at 65 before release of first novel
Posted April 16, 2013 12:50 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – Canadian non-fiction author and editor A.S.A. Harrison has died just months before the release of her debut novel.
A publicist for Penguin Canada said in an email that the author died Sunday at age 65.
In the ’70s and ’80s, Susan Harrison worked as a typesetter for the Toronto Sun and Gandalph Graphics. She also had a career as an editor for C Magazine as well as independently for a large number of galleries, artists and critics.
In 1974, she published “Orgasms” (Coach House Press), a collection of interviews with women, under the pen name A.S.A. Harrison.
Harrison was the author of four non-fiction books, including “Zodicat Speaks” (Viking Penguin), a humorous book on cat astrology, and “Revelations: Essays on Striptease and Sexuality” with Margaret Dragu (Nightwood Editions). She also collaborated with Elly Roselle on “Changing the Mind, Healing the Body,” a series of case studies in psychotherapy.
Harrison’s first novel, “The Silent Wife,” is due for release on June 25, and she was at work on another psychological thriller.
Literary agent Samantha Haywood said Harrison was her first client and described the late author as a dear family friend. Harrison had been working on fiction for a decade or more, and “The Silent Wife” marked the culmination of all of those efforts, she added.
“I absolutely loved working with her and I’m so proud of her novel and her work as a writer,” Haywood said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “She worked extremely hard and she was a real artist and a perfectionist and I think that really shows in ‘The Silent Wife.’
“It’s so finely written on every level in terms of story, in terms of character, in terms of dialogue, in terms of the craftsmanship of her language. I’m just heartbroken that she won’t be alive to see it come out and to be at her book launch.”
Haywood said that she does take some solace in the fact that Harrison was able to read advance praise of “The Silent Wife” from several bestselling authors. She also was able to see a starred review from Publishers Weekly, who described the novel as “a smart, nuanced portrait of a dying marriage.”
Harrison is survived by her husband of 30 years, visual artist John Massey.
