Scott Symons
| Scott Symons | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hugh Brennan Scott Symons July 13, 1933 Toronto, Ontario |
| Died | February 23, 2009 |
| Occupation | novelist, journalist |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Period | 1960s–1990s |
| Notable works | Place d'Armes, Civic Square |
Hugh Brennan Scott Symons (July 13, 1933 – February 23, 2009), known professionally as Scott Symons, was a Canadian writer. He was most noted for his novels Place d'Armes and Civic Square, among the first works of LGBT literature ever published in Canada, as well as a personal life that was often plagued by scandal and interpersonal conflict.
He was openly gay at a time when this was very difficult, publishing his first novel, Place d'Armes, which dealt directly with homosexuality, two years before gay sex was decriminalized in Canada. He was an avid diarist, and many of his observations and episodes from his life found their way into his novels. His writing style was marked by experimental forms and structures, with one of his novels being published as handwritten pages packaged in a box, and by a blurring of the lines between fiction and non-fiction.
He was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of businessman and writer Harry L. Symons and the brother of academic Thomas Symons. A rebellious teenager, his parents sent him to Trinity College School in Port Hope, where he took up gymnastics and established a lifelong friendship with journalist Charles Taylor. He also first came to realize that he was gay, falling in love with a fellow student but repressing his feelings in sport. Symons would later describe the experience as emotionally crippling, leaving him an "eternal thirteen; eternally the boy reaching out to touch but never being allowed to do so… except as Mommy and Authority permitted."
One night while practicing in the gymnasium, he fell off the high bar and broke his back, and was immobilized in a body cast for several months. After completing high school, he enrolled at the University of Toronto, where he earned a bachelor's degree in modern history as well as enlisting as a naval cadet and serving on the student government. He subsequently pursued graduate studies at Cambridge University.
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