He noted that he had been speaking to English teachers in Ottawa, who agreed to send a telegram of support to the Globe and Mail. tho.” On 17 February, McClelland agreed to get some letters organized and sent to the press. I got one anonymous nasty letter from someone in Peterborough, grouping me with Jacqueline Susann and Xaviera Hollander … it’s a bit odd to have this happening in my own Village. It would be awfully nice if someone could write a few letters simply in support of the merits of the novel itself.” She went on to say: “All phone calls have been supportive, so far. She replied that there had been “ several very nasty letters in the Globe, saying, in effect, that The Diviners is ‘loaded with vulgar language’ and ‘disgusting’ sex scenes. He wrote her on 11 February 1976, asking how serious the matter was, what her feelings were, and what he should do about the situation. Laurence’s publisher, Jack McClelland of McClelland & Stewart (M&S), supported her through this ordeal. Despite this ruling, only Bob Buchanan from Lakefield Secondary School continued to teach it.
On 22 April 1976, the full board decided ten votes to six to keep the book on its approved textbook list. They and their supporters told the Globe and Mail that the novel “reeked of sordidness.” The review committee did not agree and gave its unanimous support for the retention of The Diviners. The book had been opposed by Jim Telford, a board of education trustee and member of the Pentecostal community, and Rev. However, only Laurence’s book was dealt with by the committee. Both books should have been reviewed by a special committee which had been established two years earlier to review complaints against other books. In the winter of 1976 complaints were lodged at two Peterborough high schools against both The Diviners and Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women (1971). In 1968 the Ontario Ministry of Education had given local school boards the authority to determine which literary works would be used in English classes. Laurence was living in Lakefield near Peterborough, Ontario when the first controversy erupted. On a larger scale, the novel’s tone is profoundly spiritual and life-affirming. The novel deals with issues of race, sexuality, class, poverty, and abortion, and contains strong language in keeping with the characters it portrays. A writer, Gunn experiences difficult relationships with both her lover and her daughter. Set in the Prairie town of Manawaka, The Diviners tells the epic story of Morag Gunn.
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