The Porcupine's Quill
Celebrating forty years on the Main Street
of Erin Village, Wellington County
BOOKS IN PRINT
Dr Swarthmore by Alexander Scala
It’s rural Indiana in the year 1900, and the laughs come thick and fast as Dr. Swarthmore, a clergyman with a cigar fetish, attempts to sell doomsday to his fellow Hoosiers at fifty cents per doom.
Dr. Swarthmore, bearded and grave, was a clergyman posted to rural Indiana. Late in the year 1900 he published a pamphlet in which he described the Second Coming and the end of the world. Blount, an uncanny youth with a divine gift for salesmanship, proposes a scheme for promoting the pamphlet, selling it by the thousands, and making a lot of money. A new century is at hand; fear of the future, Blount reasons, will render Indiana susceptible to the exalted and prophetic flavour of the pamphlet. Dr. Swarthmore, dazzled in spite of himself, falls in with this questionable marketing plan. At the critical moment, however, public opinion sways to science rather than religion; Dr. Swarthmore is undone.
This book does not have a serious bone in its body. Its plot is absurd. Its characters are cartoons. Among many other things, it is a satire on capitalist enterprise in general and the publishing industry in particular.
2002—Globe Top 100,
Commended
Review quote
‘If for nothing else, Alexander Scala’s short novel Dr. Swarthmore must be praised for its cheek -- a 130-page disquisition on faith, science and commerce set at the turn of the 19th century. As every genuine piece of literature is always being characterized more by its form than its content, Dr. Swarthmore is all the more pleasantly peculiar by McCanLit’s rigidly naturalistic standards by virtue of its carton realism and playful sense of smart humour.’
—Ray Robertson, Toronto Star
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‘Assuredly the first novel of the new millennium in which the Second Person of the Trinity has a walk-on part in a cheap suit.’
—Jason F.X. Demolay, Iron Rain Review
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‘Dr. Swarthmore is arresting, Blount is ineffable, and Dr. Beecham is debonair, but the stomach pump steals the show.’
—Willoughby Strongapple, Euphorbia: A Magazine of the Arts
Review quote
‘It’s rural Indiana in the year 1900, and Dr. Swarthmore, a clergyman, attempts to sell doomsday to his fellow Hoosiers at 50 cents per doom. A first novel from Kingston, Ontario, resident Alexander Scala, Dr. Swarthmore is a coal-black diamond of a book -- deliciously satiric, studded with masterly turns of phrase and meaning, striking images and spectral revelations.’
—Jim Bartley, Globe & Mail
Alexander Scala was born in New York City and now lives in Kingston. He has written numerous essays and articles for the Kingston Whig-Standard. His latest book, Under the Sun: Essays, was published by Quarry Press in 1988.
The Porcupine's Quill would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. The financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) is also gratefully acknowledged.
