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ZESLIE McFARLANE its seen here in his recreation room reading a script he (SR rerermnnmemteannernmennteanicsnnnneesre etanercept Tee serene TT eT Ping CANADIAN NOVELIST CALLS WHITBY HOME has just completed. Pic- tures in the background are publicity photographs taken of his television plays dur- ing filming. (Oshawa Times Photo) Fortune In Memories Backed By Quick Wit WHITBY (Staff) -- Leslie McFarlane, 62-year-old novel- ist-playwright, epitomizes the dream of every working news- paperman, He works from an office in his beautiful home here on King 'st. -that--issurrounded by pines. Best of ail -- he has no editor breathing down his neck. Although this arrangement would lend itself to laziness for a lot of writers, such is not the case with this grey- haired little word demon who combines a quick wit and a fortune in memories. It is these memories that enable him to produce the vast number of novels and plays for which he has _ be- come famous. Mr. McFarlane, like most successful novelist - play- wrights, entered the writing entered the writing field via newspapers. He began his mewspaper career in the Northern Ontario town of Haileybury and during his high school days, wrote articles for the now defunct Cobalt Nugget. His experience as a sports prriter with the Sudbury Star accounts for his interest in his latest novel and television play, "'McConigle Skates again," a story of a former hockey star who now scouts the Northern Ontario area for a big-league club. The book took him about six months to complete, but work on it was interrupted, at times while the author at- tended to other writing and script duties. He is now under contract with McClelland and Stewart Publishing House fn Toronto. "Jack McClelland was on television recently,' said Mr. MeFariane, "'and- told an--in- terviewer that he was expect- ing a book a year from me for the next 12 years. He's prob- ably right.' in 1927, following a six- month stint as feature editor of a Springfield, Mass. news- paper, Mr. McFarlane re- turned to Canada to devote full-time to writing fiction. He has produced some 20 volumes of the continuing Hardy Boys series and although he has not kept accurate count of all his man- uscripts over the years, has written in excess of 30 books. His latest book, "The Last of the Great. Picnics," is a flashback in time to the late 1800s when this sort of politi- cal festivity drew huge crowds in the Ottawa area. One of the pienics he describes in the book was attended by Sir John A. Macdonald. "I wrote this book to give the youth of today an idea of what the horse and buggy days were like,"' said Mr. Mc- Farlane. FOR SCHOOLS He said he hopes the book will be accepted in schools STL +h across the country. the book's release is timely with Canada's upcoming cele- bration in 1967 of 106 years of Confederation, Mr. McFarlane said it wasn't written with this purpose in mind. 'A book that sells 5,000 copies in Canada is consider- ed a financial success," he said. 'We are quite different from the United States in this respect. There, a book would have to sell about 10 times that many copies to be considered successful." Mr. McFarlane lived in Whitby during the 1930s be- fore moving to Ottawa and accepting the position of chief script writer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. His Boots Now Beat The Rush A Small Deposit Holds Them Until Needed SHOES e+» to make your feet lovelier THE OSHAWA TIMES, Saturday, November 13, 1965 3A % DON'T MISS The Charming Beautiful and Talented LADY GREENSLEEVES NEXT WEEK ONLY The CADILLAC HOTEL ENTERTAINMENT NIGHTLY