Graeme Gibson, Toronto author and poet and partner to Margaret Atwood, has died at the age of 85 in London, England. He was accompanying Atwood on the tour for her widely anticipated book The Testaments, a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale.

“We are devastated by the loss of Graeme, our beloved father, grandfather, and spouse, but we are happy that he achieved the kind of swift exit he wanted and avoided the decline into further dementia that he feared,” Atwood said in a statement. “He had a lovely last few weeks, and he went out on a high, surrounded by love, friendship and appreciation. We are grateful for his wise, ethical, and committed life.”

Gibson was the author of the novels Five Legs, Communion, Perpetual Motion, and Gentleman Death. In addition, he served as the president of PEN Canada, was the recipient of the Harbourfront Prize, the Toronto Arts Award and was a member of the Order of Canada.

“As a founding member of both the Writers’ Trust of Canada and the Writers’ Union of Canada, his influence on the lives of writers in this country has been profound and far-reaching,” said Kristin Cochrane, Atwood’s publisher and CEO of Penguin Random House Canada in a statement. “We are grateful for that superlative legacy, one that will continue to flourish, and also grateful for our own experiences working with Graeme: a true gentleman, whose gracious, elegant, and witty manner touched all who knew him.”

John Degen, executive director of the Writers’ Union, says “he was a bit of a father figure to a lot of people in Canadian writing, myself included.” He recalls how Gibson helped him decide his own career path as a writer and in publishing.

Gibson was one of the founding members of the union in 1973. One central incident involved Gibson climbing up on the statue of Egerton Ryerson at Ryerson University and draping it in an American flag — an incident that garnered a lot of media coverage. He was protesting the sale of the Ryerson Press to a U.S. firm; Degen recalls Gibson later said “that was when we realized we had influence — when we (writers) worked together.”

He also was the driving force behind the creation of the Writers’ Trust, noted current executive director Mary Osborne, which recognized the precarious nature of writers’ work and was created to develop support systems for writers in need as well as to create a community among writers. “Look at anything we do today, whether it be our grant program for writers in financial crisis, our literary awards, our writers in residency or any of our more recent programs, and you can draw a straight line back to Graeme Gibson. None of this would exist without him. Most importantly, he was a truly fine person, and he will be terribly missed,” she said.

Gibson was perhaps as well known for his dedication to birds and the Pelee Island Bird Observatory. He and Atwood had a home on the island. A committed conservationist, he was a council member of World Wildlife Fund Canada and chairman of the PIBO.

In an interview with the Star regarding the publication of his book The Bedside Book of Beasts in 2009 and his 2005 book The Bedside Book of Birds Gibson said, “I know I’m not going to change the world and I didn’t want to be dogmatic. But what I can do is explore our changing relationship with nature, and help readers recover an elementary sense of respect for animals that seems to have been lost.”

He also said that, “One of the things we must do collectively is get our children and grandchildren into nature as much as possible. It is not good for kids to sit in school every day, all week, training the brain and ignoring the body.”

When asked his thoughts, writer and editor Barry Callaghan, once a neighbour of Atwood and Gibson, said what he remembers the latter for is “generosity of spirit. There are those few who get things done, and done well. And then there are the really rare doers. Those who do for you what needs to be done, but who do so full of a generosity of spirit. So rare. So generous. Graeme was a rare one.”

Graeme Gibson was born on August 9, 1934 in London, Ontario. He leaves his wife and three children, Graeme Jr., Matthew and Jess.

Late last week, Atwood posted a YouTube link to the Alfred Lord Tennyson poem Crossing the Bar, musically performed by Doggerland, presumably in reference to Gibson.

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

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Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,

And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

When I embark;

For though from out our bourne of Time and Place

The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my pilot face to face

When I have crossed the bar.

This file has been changed to reflect that Graeme Gibson had three children.

Deborah Dundas is the Star's Books editor. She is based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: debdundas

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