SOURCE: Verduyn, Christl. “Scratching Around: Early Writings and Unpublished Work.” In Lifelines: Marian Engel's Writings, pp. 44-61. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995.

In the following essay, Verduyn analyzes Engel's early and unpublished writings to explore her devotion to her writing, the evolution of her themes throughout her career, and the degree to which she realized the objectives she set out in her notebooks.

Gap between exp[erience] & expression is what writer is aware of.

Marian Engel, notebook entry¹

So you have to scratch around, and it's the scratching around that gives you the experience that later makes for content.

Marian Engel, in an interview²

As demonstrated in her notebooks, or cahiers, Marian Engel had an urgent drive to be a writer and began writing at an early age—with both publishable and unpublishable results. Before the appearance of her first published novel, Sarah Bastard's Notebook, she produced...