of Chatham, a fact that led to some teasing. Soon Peter met Darcy McKeough, whose grandfather, A.C. Woodward, had owned the Daily News until 1922. Apparently, Jim Chaplin had telephoned McKeough to tell him that Peter was in Chatham. McKeough and Peter went out for dinner, and Darcy arranged an interview for Jennie with an architectural firm.
On Saturday, February 14, 1958, Jennie and Peter were married in the chapel of the University of Toronto’s Wycliffe College on Hoskin Avenue, just west of Queen’s Park. This theological college, named after John Wycliffe, the fourteenth-century clergyman and translator, was founded in 1877 by members of the evangelical branch of the Church of England. Casimir Gzowski had been a promoter and benefactor of the college and one of its first trustees. Later he served as chairman of the College Council. His son, Casimir S. Gzowski, also played a prominent role in the founding of the college. The chapel itself, where the wedding took place, dates from 1891.
The bride was given away by her uncle, William Seibel, of Ancaster, Ontario. Her maid of honour was Clyde Batten’s wife, “Mrs. C.C. Batten, Jackson’s Point.” The bride and her attendant were described as “pretty” in lace and satin and nosegays. There was a noticeable absence of fathers. However, Reg Lissaman did send $500 as a wedding gift. Margaret Brown was named in the article as “the late Mrs. Gzowski.” Clyde Batten was the only usher, and the best man was Ron Brownridge, who had driven down from Port Arthur. The presiding clergyman was the principal of Wycliffe, the Reverend Ramsay Armitage. At the reception, held in Clarendon Hall, Jennie’s mother and Peter’s grandmother Gzowski stood in the receiving line.
Peter and Jennie’s wedding photo as it appeared in Chatham’s Daily News on February 18, 1957.
(Courtesy Chatham-Kent Public Library)
On their honeymoon, Peter liked to boast, their first child was conceived.39 As the old saying goes, babies usually take nine months, but with the first one you can never be certain. Peter Casimir Gzowski was born on October 22, 1958, less than nine months after the wedding. It is entirely possible that he was conceived during the honeymoon, though, since the couple had been living together in Chatham for several weeks, Peter’s romantic conceit is probably another flight of fancy.
Peter didn’t spend all his honeymoon lovemaking. He took time out to write an article about the wedding, which appeared on February 18 in Moose Jaw’s Daily News. Accompanying it was a photograph of the happy couple, Peter giddy and boyish, sans “respectacles,” and Jennie, peering heavenward and giving the impression of being rather tired of all those nosegays. In the article, Peter claimed he was a graduate of the University of Toronto.
The creative city editor was soon back at his desk. On February 27, he wrote about the Chatham Little Theatre workshop. The cast for Sabrina Fair included the young and beautiful Sylvia Fricker, a few years before her last name changed to Tyson. It was probably also Peter who reported on the drama club at the Chatham Collegiate Institute. Although there is no evidence that he acted or directed in Chatham, he did attend Little Theatre productions, according to Darcy McKeough, who was a member. Peter also acquired review tickets from theatres in Detroit such as the Schubert, the Cass, and the Fox, and invited McKeough to accompany him a few times.
On March 6, 1958, “Peter Gzowski, News City Editor,” wrote a piece entitled “Huge Chatham Crowd Hears Prime Minister.” Having governed with a minority of seats since the previous June, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker had called an election for March 31. About three thousand people packed the Chatham Armoury, and another six hundred stood outside, making it, by Peter’s count, “the biggest crowd to attend a political meeting in Chatham since the heydays of the 1930s.” Since most of the articles about the city were published without a byline, one can only assume that it was Peter who covered events such as city council meetings, construction of a new Roman Catholic church, and rotting garbage in the city. He was probably the journalist who wrote stories about bootlegging, a fatal car accident, and vandalism at the local bus terminal.
Later, in March, Peter was promoted to the post of managing editor,40 thus making him, along with Pierre Berton, one of the youngest managing editors in Canada. He was now in charge of editorials, one of which, on April 11, 1958, was headlined “Shooting at the Moon,” which commented on President Eisenhower’s recent statement that soon the Americans would be sending unmanned probes around the moon. In 1958, Americans were still recovering from the surprise Sputnik that the Soviets had lobbed around the Earth the previous October. On May 1, 1958, the editor wrote about the difficulties Prime Minister Diefenbaker was having passing bills. On the same day, Peter pointed out that the Red Ensign was the official flag of Canada and had been since 1945. So why all the fuss over a new flag? he wondered.
Winn Miller knew Peter in Chatham. Her father, Victor Lauriston, was a long-time journalist on the Daily News, and she herself was the Chatham correspondent for the London Free Press. According to Miller, Peter had good ideas and high ideals, and he was always community-minded. He wanted to hire Miller away from the London paper. To do so he tried to convince the Thomson organization to pay her two salaries, since he knew that one salary alone wouldn’t match what the Siftons were paying her in London. There was no deal, but Miller got to know Peter. “The man had so much personality,” she recalled years later. “You just couldn’t believe it.” She even got away with giving him a lecture on the evils of smoking.
After a few months in Chatham, Peter was offered a job at Maclean’s. At that time the magazine was the most important window on Canada, and its journalists were among the best. No doubt he was pleased to be rid of Chatham society, which he considered “pretty closed.”41 It didn’t matter that Jennie was making arrangements to join the architectural firm of Joe Storey. In 1958 there was no option for her but to move with Peter. Like many other talented women of her generation, Jennie was limited to domestic duties and to loving, honouring, and obeying the head of the household. She “girled” and “boyed,” as Peter called the birthing process,42 and she tended to the growing family, which allowed Peter to take pleasure in the joys of fatherhood, a fulfilling career, and an extramarital life. Peter was on his way to the top.
— 4 — The Dangerous Temptation of Prediction, 1958–1962
It is now an inescapable fact that we are headed toward separation into two countries.
— Peter Gzowski, “Conversations with Quebec’s Revolutionaries,” Maclean’s, September 7, 1963
Soon after the twenty-four-year-old Peter bounded into the offices of Maclean’s, the day after Labour Day 1958, he boasted to June Callwood, and to anyone else at Maclean’s who noticed him, that he would be a published novelist by age thirty. He may have been attempting to emulate Ralph Allen, the magazine’s editor, who had written several successful novels.1 Allen had taken note of Peter when he was editor of The Varsity. While in Moose Jaw and Chatham, Peter had bombarded Allen with short pieces and story ideas. During the summer of 1958, Allen had called Peter in Chatham to offer him a job as one of eight assistant editors at Maclean’s at $6,000 per year.2
Allen soon became Peter’s “most important idol,” and long after Allen’s death, Peter wrote almost nothing, he claimed, without feeling that Allen was peering over his shoulder.3 As editor of Maclean’s from 1950 to 1960, Allen insisted on detailed outlines and multiple drafts before he accepted an article for publication. Delete the writing of which you are most proud, he used to tell his staff, for pride was a sure sign of self-indulgence. He required his writers to adhere to his formula: a lead or introduction followed by a sub-lead or hook that captured the reader. A series of anecdotes and expositions were
