Black Moss Press - Raymond Knister

Raymond Knister, who died tragically in 1932, was the first Canadian writer to be published in Parisian magazines alongside Hemingway, Joyce and Stein. He also edited the first book of Canadian short stories.

Knister was a leading writer of experimental Canadian fiction and poetry in the 1920s.

Despite his pioneering role as modernist and modern realist, Knister’s work has never received the attention that it merits, and his literary reputation has yet to be firmly established.

While most of the criticism of his work focuses upon his collected poetry and his first published novel, White Narcissus (1929), he was remarkably versatile and prolific.

In his decade-long career, he produced about one hundred poems, nearly as many short stories and sketches, four novels, and dozens of critical works, including essays, book reviews, editorials, and a landmark anthology of Canadian short fiction.

There Was A Mr. Cristi
Raymond Knister

This exciting "literary find, " a never before published novel by the renowned Canadian writer Raymond Knister, tells the story of a woman who tires of living with her "transplanted " husband on his fruit farm outside of Toronto.

This ambitious and independent English-born wife leaves for the city with the idea of starting a new life. She goes to Toronto where she moves into a rooming house with some friends, and decides this is exactly the kind of business that would suit her.

This woman — Mrs. Cristi — buys a three-storey boarding house that has "dark brick with great bow-windows, and overgrown with vines, " and moves in. What follows is a fascinating tale of life in the 1930s in a house that is inhabited by all these bizarre characters. In the background is the "tall and dark and good looking " Mr. Cristi, and we begin to wonder if we will ever come to know him. He is shrouded in mystery as the characters in this rambling old house come alive vividly for us.

This novel by Knister was discovered recently by his daughter and only now is being published for the first time.

ISBN 0-88753-414-7
Fiction, 112 pages, 6 x 9, $18.95

Excerpt:

You will guess that he was Italian, but the name was pronounced 'Christie' so casually, you understood that he might be English,

if you had never seen him, but only his wife. He was tall and dark and good looking in a placid way, she would imply. He had a fruit farm outside of Toronto, and in general, bore himself as a transplanted person of means, and perhaps, family. As a young man he visited England, where he married an Englishwoman tall and fair, with quick mannerisms and speech. They had three children, Belle, Carlotta, and Edmund. Belle was born in England, and they took her with them when they went to Switzerland for the better part of a year. Then Mrs. Cristi formed a penchant for Canada, as she pictured it. She felt sure of a fitting place in the society of the colony. Mr. Cristi had given in, sooner or later, to all her expressed desires, and he came to Canada. Carlotta and Edmund were in Toronto.

But even in this country their marital relations were not happy. Mrs. Cristi was not satisfied, though he swore that he did not know what she wanted. She did not like farm life, for one thing. After she had left him she would say, "And he had no waterworks in the house, if you can imagine that." He would not make any special attempt upon society, but was content with acquaintances, friendships formed through chance. She had the car some afternoons, but instead of associating with the Port Credit set she drove to Toronto, shopped and window-shopped, and at four-thirty had tea in the Arcadian Court. Excited by the orchestra and the well-dressed women about her, she assured herself that if she could live in Toronto she would soon be mingling with the best people.