Bear (novel)

Bear

cover of the paperback edition, 1977
Author	Marian Engel
Country	Canada
Language	English
Genre	Fiction
Published	1976
Publisher	McClelland & Stewart
Pages	141
Awards	Governor General's Literary Award,1976 – Fiction, English
ISBN
OCLC	2507467

Bear is a novel by Canadian author Marian Engel, published in 1976. It won the Governor General's Literary Award the same year. It is Engel's fifth novel, and her most famous. The story tells of a lonely librarian in northern Ontario who enters into a sexual relationship with a bear. The book has been called "the most controversial novel ever written in Canada".

The book was Engel's fifth novel, and her sixth piece of published writing. Engel studied under author Hugh MacLennan, finishing her Master's of Arts at McGill University in Montreal in 1957. Her first novel, No Clouds for Glory, was released in 1968. She was awarded a Canada Council grant on the strength of the book, but had difficulty finding a publisher for her second novel, The Honeyman Festival. The book was published in 1970 by the new Toronto company House of Anansi Press, which would also put out another novel, Monodronos, and a collection of short stories, Inside the Easter Egg.

The novel was written in a busy and tumultuous period in the author's life, a "very crazy time" as described by Engel. In 1973, Engel had started the Writers' Union of Canada (W.U.C.) from her home, and served as its first chairperson. Through the W.U.C., and her position on the Board of Trustees for the Toronto Public Library, she advocated for public lending rights for Canadian authors. She was raising twins while undergoing a painful divorce. She took regular psychotherapy sessions, and worried about her mental health. Engel would end up dedicating the book to John Rich, her therapist.

Engel started writing the novel to contribute to a W.U.C. collection of pornographic fiction by "serious" writers. The project was supposed to raise funds for the cash-strapped union, but did not make it to publication. Engel kept with her 31-page draft, and developed it into the 141-page novel. She was partly inspired by the First Nations legend of The Bear Princess, as recorded by folklorist Marius Barbeau. The story was suggested to the writer by the Haida artist Bill Reid. Early titles for the book included The Bear of Pennarth and The Dog of God. The book was rejected when first sent to publishers. An editor with Harcourt Brace wrote in a rejection letter: "Its relative brevity coupled with its extreme strangeness presents, I’m afraid, an insuperable obstacle in present circumstances." Fellow Canadian author Robertson Davies praised the book to McClelland & Stewart editors, and Engel started a lifelong friendship with company president Jack McClelland. The first printing was released in Toronto on May 1976.