Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page

by Sandra Djwa

Journey with No Maps is the first biography of P.K. Page, a brilliant twentieth-century poet and a fine artist. The product of over a decade's research and writing, the book follows Page as she becomes one of Canada's best-loved and most influential writers. "A borderline being," as she called herself, she recognized the new choices offered to women by modern life but followed only those related to her quest for self-discovery. Tracing Page's life through two wars, world travels, the rise of modernist and Canadian cultures, and later Sufi study, biographer Sandra Djwa details the people and events that inspired her work. Page's independent spirit propelled her from Canada to England, from work as a radio actress to a scriptwriter for the National Film Board, from an affair with poet F.R. Scott to an enduring marriage with diplomat Arthur Irwin. Page wrote her story in poems, fiction, diaries, librettos, and her visual art. Journey with No Maps reads like a novel, drawing on the poet's voice from interviews, diaries, letters, and writings as well as the voices of her contemporaries. With the vividness of a work of fiction and the thoroughness of scholarly dedication, Djwa illustrates the complexities of Page's private experience while also documenting her public emergence as an internationally known poet. It is both the captivating story of a remarkable woman and a major contribution to the study of Canada's literary and artistic history.

Genres: Biography, Poetry, Canada, Nonfiction

424 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Sandra Djwa was born in Newfoundland and completed a B.Ed. at UBC (1964), and a Ph.D. (1968). She joined the English department at Simon Fraser in 1968 and taught Canadian literature until 2005.

Best known for her essays on poets and novelists (Atwood, Cohen, Lawrence), and as a biographer and editor, Djwa co-founded the Association of Canadian and Quebec Literatures in 1973, and wrote the annual survey of “Poetry” for Letters in Canada, UTQ, 1980-84. In 1981 she established the E.J. Pratt editorial committee and co-edited Complete Poems of E.J. Pratt with Gordon Moyles, and Selected Poems of E.J. Pratt with Zailig Pollock and W.J. Keith. She was Chair of the English Department at SFU between 1986 and 1994, President of the Chairs and Heads of English in 1989-90, and the first recipient of the Trimark Women’s Mentor Award for mentoring younger colleagues in 1999. She has been a member of the Royal Society of Canada since 1994.

She has published ten books including three major biographies. Her life of F.R. Scott, The Politics of the Imagination (1987), was short listed for the Hubert Evans B.C. Non-Fiction prize. Fifteen years after first publication, this biography was translated into French by Florence Bernard without any change in content as F.R. Scott: Une vie (2001). Highly praised in Québec, it was short-listed for the Governor-General's Award for French translation. Djwa has also edited and introduced the memoirs of Carl F. Klinck, Giving Canada a Literary History (1991), and edited and introduced various critical editions of E.J. Pratt's poetry.

Djwa's 2012 biography of poet P.K. Page, A Journey With No Maps, was shortlisted for the 2013 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, and won the 2013 Governor General Award for Non-Fiction.

Reviews

[Aubrey Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book filled in some gaps about the PK I knew. But it lacks her spirit, economy and spark.It plods along, weighed down by too many details and names. Worse, it has a sly bias that misrepresents the key writers and thinkers she considered vital to her being and her later work: Idries Shah, Doris Lessing, Robert Ornstein, Arthur Deikman. Short of knowing PK personally, to really understand her and what she considered important, I suggest you read these folks together with her wonderful poems.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biography of P.K Page, Canadian poet. I loved this book because it describes PK's life in greater detail, and goes into greater detail about her personal life ( which she was apt not to discuss while she was alive.) Sometimes, however, the writing is uneven and scattered, and I wondered at Djwa's organization of the material. Also, there are quite a few typos in the book, including the back cover! However, I am glad that a biography has been written as PK Page deserves to be remembered as one of Canada's greatest poets.

[Rennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a 4 star for the first half then bogged down a bit with more detail than was ideal for me causing me to think 3 for awhile. It finished up with a 4 to recognize the depth of research done for this book and the writing style and pace that I found easy to read.

It was very interesting to review Canada's political history as well as the progress towards the recognition of Canadian authors as those worlds collided with the life of the P.K. Page.

[Jane Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book detailing Page's life and times. It filled in details for me and gave me a fuller understanding of this period in Canadian poetry and literature. Well researched, well written and well balanced between the personal and literary life of one of Canada's great poets. Check out the NFB film by Don Winkler.

[Bonnie Lendrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to read Journey With No Maps through the happy experience of meeting Sandra Djwa at the TWUC conference in Newfoundland. At that time, to my embarrassment,I did not know that Djwa had won the Governor General’s award for non-fiction for this biography of P. K. Page. Furthermore, I had no idea who P. K. Page was. (Forgive me. I have two science degrees.)

Djwa’s biography of Page gripped me. She captured the spirit of P. K. Page the person, and her insecurity as an artist. I found the writing to be scholarly and engaging. Djwa sets P. K. Page in her social, geographical and historical context and does this well. The process of compiling such a manuscript was, I suspect, daunting on more than one occasion.

There were a few instances that I found particularly touching. Despite her success as an author and painter, Page struggled with finding her “path”. Her journal entry on page 181 moved me to tears. A few pages later, the section that made me smile was the image of the young Alice Munro (in 1964) blushing and almost fainting when P.K. Page spoke to her in Munro’s Books.

A Journey with No Maps is an essential book for anyone who aspires to appreciate, and contribute to Canadian literature.

Bonnie Lendrum is the author of Autumn’s Grace (2013), published by Inanna Publications and Education Inc.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved reading about this Canadian poet and artist -- a fascinating woman. It was so interesting learning about the times she lived and wrote in, and how her art progressed and changed, as well as her life long interest in Sufi thought and philosophy; something I am interested in learning more about myself.

I found the writing of this biography poor; the structure is repetitive and the number of typos in the electronic version was very distracting. Sentences quite often had words repeated or misspelled and the Master degree was written in lowercase "ma" several times. It could have been the OCR translation from print to make the electronic version, but surely someone could have proofread that before committing it to the public eye.

Overall though, it was gratifying reading about P. K. and I hope to read more of her work, along with F. R. Scott's.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this book from library reserve yesterday. Skimmed it and r e turning tomorrow. Did not find it that interesting except for this quote at the beginning:

I am traveller. I have a destination but no maps. Others perhaps have reached that destination already, still others are on their way. But none has had to go from here before- nor will again. One's route is one's own. One's journey unique. What I will find at the end I can barely guess. What lies on the way is unknown. P.K.Page "Traveller,Conjuror,Journeyman," 1970

[Camrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good factual coverage of the poet/painter's life, juicy in parts (especially her relationship with F. R. Scott) told in a readable though bland manner. Interesting to learn about her life as wife of a Canadian ambassador, particularly their time in Brazil during which Pat turned to painting in response to the warm natural and social environment. Well illustrated with selected paintings and numerous photographs.

[Lawren]

Sandra Djwa gives an engaging chronological account of Page's life while still managing to evoke the transcendent spirit of her art and poetry. The many excerpted poems leave one wanting to dig deeper into her work.

Also, I learned that Page and I share an affinity for the writings of Sufi thinker Idries Shah and that her husband and I went to the same doctor. Canadian literary celebrities: they're just like us!