Edward Openshaw Phillips (November 26, 1931 – May 30, 2020) was a Canadian novelist, who has written both mystery novels and mainstream literary fiction.[1] He was best known for his mystery novel series featuring gay detective Geoffrey Chadwick.[2]Partner Kenneth Woodman
Queer Places:
Harvard University (Ivy League), 2 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA 02138
487 Av. Grosvenor, Westmount, QC H3Y 2S5, Canada
Cimetière Mont-Royal
Outremont, Montreal Region, Quebec, Canada
Edward Openshaw Phillips (November 26, 1931 – May 30, 2020) was a Canadian novelist, who has written both mystery novels and mainstream literary fiction.[1] He was best known for his mystery novel series featuring gay detective Geoffrey Chadwick.[2]
Edward Openshaw Phillips was born on Nov. 26, 1931, in Montreal. His parents were Dorothy (née Skaife) and A. Lovell Phillips, a businessman who at one point served as president of the Canadian Red Cross. Ted was the youngest of three, brother to Grace, the eldest, and L. Philip. Ted was very bright and started his education at McGill University and then went on to get a bachelor of civil law degree at the University of Montreal. His class, which graduated in 1956, included future Quebec premier Robert Bourassa and Antonio Lamer, who went on to become chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. He stayed close friends with some of his classmates from that time.
Deciding that he didn’t want to practise law, he moved to the United States and first did a master’s degree in education at Harvard University and followed it up with a master’s in English literature from Boston University. Upon his return to Montreal, he spent seven years as a teacher: first in the Montreal English public school system, then at the private school Selwyn House. It was around this time, in 1966, that Phillips met Kenneth Woodman at a bar, recalls his niece Martha Hancock, daughter of Phillips’s sister, Grace. “They just fell for each other,” she says. “They were a wonderful team.” Woodman was a pianist and music professor at McGill University. Within a few years, the two moved in together in a home in Westmount.
After teaching school for seven years, he pursued a long-time interest in painting.[1] His work was exhibited in five one-man and numerous group shows. His first novel, Sunday's Child, was published in 1981,[2] and was shortlisted for the Books in Canada First Novel Award. Phillips won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in 1987 for his novel Buried on Sunday,[2] and was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1989 for his novel Hope Springs Eternal.[3] His short story "Matthew and Chauncy" was adapted by Anne Claire Poirier into the 1989 film Salut Victor.[4]
Phillips died of heart failure, a long-standing health condition that worsened after he contracted COVID-19. Phillips was also suffering from the early stage of Parkinson’s disease. His partner, Kenneth Woodman, predeceased him in 2018.[1]
My published books:
