Life
Swan grew up in Midland, Ontario, and has a younger brother John. Swan was a bookworm as a child and wrote stories to entertain herself and her friends. An early short story by Swan was deemed plagiarism by her Grade Seven teacher who said the writing was too good to have been written by a young girl. Swan’s parents were Jane Cowan of Sarnia, Ontario, and Dr. Churchill Swan, a Midland G.P.
Swan attended Midland Public School and as a teenager, she worked as a reporter on the Midland Free Press. From 1959 to 1963, she was a boarder at Toronto’s Havergal College, which inspired one of her novels. Swan has a general B.A. from McGill University (1964–67) where she worked on The McGill Daily. Swan was also editor of The McGill Scene, a newspaper for Montreal high school students that was banned under Swan’s editorship. Swan later worked as a reporter for several Toronto daily newspapers before turning to magazine freelance and novel writing.
On March 27, 1969 she married Barry Haywood in the boardroom of The Telegram, where Swan was the education reporter. They had one daughter, Samantha (1973-) and the two were later divorced. Swan’s longtime partner is Canadian publisher Patrick Crean.
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Famous quotes containing the word life:
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“The Spirit of Place [does not] exert its full influence upon a newcomer until the old inhabitant is dead or absorbed. So America.... The moment the last nuclei of Red [Indian] life break up in America, then the white men will have to reckon with the full force of the demon of the continent.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)