Biographies with a point of view. An innovative series of portraits pairing Canada’s most distinguished writers with great Canadians who have shaped our thinking. Based upon Penguin Canada’s Extraordinary Canadians collection of books edited by John Ralston Saul, the series provides deeply personal takes on the lives of eminent Canadians from the perspective of celebrated contemporary writers.
Unique among television biography series, Extraordinary Canadians captures the relationship between writer and subject that lies at the heart of the biography process, and probes the distinctive link between the two. As each writer chronicles the life of a Canadian from whom they have drawn inspiration, we will be treated to insights into the lives of both biographer and subject.
Read the books. Watch the television series. And discover what it means to be Canadian.
A Taste of the Extraordinary
A clip from the first episode in the series.
Genius, enigma, hypochondriac: a life shrouded in mystery. Mark Kingwell shows how Glenn Gould, rock star of classical music, was in fact a great philosopher and innovator, and in this intimate portrait, he looks beyond the eccentricities to the man behind the music.
