Admired Literary Figures of Renown And Personal Blemishes

"I visited her there [living with her sister] and was overwhelmed by her sense of injury to herself."

"Did she realize she was speaking to a victim, and that I was her child? If she did, I couldn't feel it. When I tried to tell her how her husband's abuse had hurt me, she was incredulous. 'But you were such a happy child', she said."

"She was adamant that whatever had happened was between me and my stepfather. It had nothing to do with her."

 Andrea Robin Skinner

 

"I still feel she's such a great writer -- she deserved the Nobel."

"She devoted her life to it, and she manifested this amazing talent and imagination. And that's all, really, she wanted to do in her life."

"Get those stories down and get them out."

Sheila Munro

Alice Munro (Derek Shapton/McClelland & Stewart)

 

The literary world is in a state of shock, given the revelation expressed in a weekend essay for the Toronto Star that venerated author Alice Munro -- she of the short-story genre with a huge following and popularity that earned her international recognition culminating in her becoming a Nobel laureate -- might have been rather less than a guiding light as a mother. Certainly she surprised one of her daughters by her uncaring, unsupportive attitude at a time when a child needs the emotional and unconditional support every mother -- every woman -- is obligated to confer on her child.

 

Andrea Robin Skinner wrote of a 1976 visit with her mother and stepfather, when she was nine years of age and the experience she underwent when her stepfather, Alice Munro's second husband Gerald Fremlin, sexually assaulted her. For the first time. That episode led to other similar sexual assaults over the following years well into her teen years. 

It was not until 16 years later that Alice Munro's daughter from her failed marriage with James Munro, informed her mother that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather. A revelation that led to the mother leaving her husband to travel to Comox, British Columbia where she stayed with daughter Sheila Munro, herself now a writer. But Munro returned to live with Fremlin, remaining together until his death in 2013.

 

The acclaimed short story author whose specialty was writing about the lives of girls and women in a gossipy style all her own that appealed to a wide readership and literary academia as well, won her the accolades that included the Man Booker award in 2009, and the 2013 Nobel Prize for literature. She died at age 92 on May 13 in 2024. 

Her daughter contacted Ontario Provincial Police, supplying them with letters from Fremlin in which he admitted to having abused her. That revelation and the charges that followed took place in 2004 after her mother in an interview with the New York Times Magazine, praised Fremlin. Leading to a count of indecent assault, where at age 80, Fremlin received a suspended sentence. An episode that saw such little publicity it was unknown to Munro's wide circle of admirers.

Sheila Munro wrote Lives of Mothers & Daughters: Growing Up With Alice Munro, a topic her mother had suggested to her. No reference to her sister having been abused appears in the book. But Sheila Munro  wrote that her mother drew frequently on her private life, which to some extent most writers of fiction often rely upon to guide their stories. Her daughter observed that she found it a struggle to separate her mother's fiction "from the reality of what actually happened."

 

By no means does this revelation about the personal life and characteristics of a famous author represent a rarity. In fact, many authors of great repute and popularity are known to have been far less stellar in their personal lives, their values and their choices in life than might seem to the admiring mind of a reader to match the esteem of their skilled writing style and admirable story-telling authenticity.

"Lotta folks mourning the Alice Munro news not out of sympathy for her abused daughter, but for how it re-contextualizes the art they love."

"Art is not and should not be fandom. Great art is very often uncomfortable, very often the product of bad, broken people."

Barbara VanDenburgh, former books editor, USA Today

Canadian author Alice Munro reads from her book The View From Castle Rock at a ceremony held by the Royal Canadian Mint to celebrate her Nobel Prize win where they unveiled a 99.99% pure silver five-dollar coin at the Great Victoria Public Library in Victoria, B.C., Monday, March 24, 2014. (Chad Hipolito/Canadian Press)