PHOTO: Nicolas Morin

The controversial 1993 film Rise and Fall of English Montreal, about the city's anglophone exodus and the history of the English-speaking community in Montreal, was "Weintraub at his sour and angry best," according to Robert Verrel, former head of production at the Film Board. "He had problems with the management of the NFB, as they were nervous, which made him more angry." The CBC refused to show the film, a media storm erupted, and eventually it was shown on Vision TV and some PBS border stations. "You remember the battles, but not things that went well and smoothly," says Weintraub. "Not that they ever did."

But even as his film involvement deepened, Weintraub never abandoned his literary inclinations. When he announced the birth of his 250-page first draft of a novel in a 1957 letter, Moore responded, "...my eyebrows rose and I registered ONE UP in the utter surprise division. This is great news -- great." A second draft of the manuscript was sent to Moore in 1959.

"He was very harsh with his criticism," recalls Weintraub. In Getting Started, he writes, "Brian told me he had been purposely harsh, to bring me to my senses -- before I even left them.... He wanted to get through to me, and a sledgehammer seemed the appropriate tool." The criticism was ultimately constructive. Weintraub returned to the typewriter, and when Why Rock the Boat was published in 1961, it was a critical and popular success. Similar in tone to Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim, it frolics along with a young journalist learning about love, life and expediency in the 1940s at the fictional Montreal Daily Witness. Four decades later, Why Rock the Boat still reads well.

	A postcard from Brian Moore urging Weintraub to keep working on his second novel.

"Moore was really the greatest friend I had, and encouraged me a lot," Weintraub says. The encouragement took many forms, including a series of postcards reading, "ONE HOUR," "ONE HOUR A DAY," and "The moving finger writes ONE HOUR," to convince Weintraub that writing an hour a day for one year would create enough material for a second novel.

But despite Moore's tactics, The Underdogs, a satire set in the Republic of Quebec 20 years after separation, didn't arrive until 1974. "I showed the manuscript to Mordecai this time," Weintraub notes. "He was pretty harsh, too, and I reshaped it a bit." And again, Weintraub had a successful novel on his hands. Both books were revived in different genres, Why Rock the Boat as a 1974 NFB feature film and The Underdogs as a play performed before solid houses during the 1998 Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal.

Weintraub outside the legendary Café des Deux Magots in Paris, 1951. On the set for the filming of his novel Why Rock the Boat in 1974.

Weintraub's legacy, diverse as it is, delights Murray. "His work in film is just as interesting as the letters. It's important work at an important time for the film industry in Canada," she stresses, "and as far as literary matters are concerned, we haven't had anything as special as this since I became chief curator of Rare Books in 1996."

Calgary, which houses the Richler and Moore archives, also sought Weintraub's papers, but, as he points out, "McGill is my alma mater, and when Irena asked me for them, I thought, 'This is where they belong.' Also, I can go over there and look at them if I need to." The McGill choice is fitting, Verrel suggests. "Bill's personal passion has very much to do with the history of Montreal, as testified by his books and many of his films."

But what of the man himself? How does he assess the career inscribed on the documents? "Moore, Richler and Gallant were absolutely committed to literary work. I'd be too easily distracted by a film idea, a play or something else," he claims. "I could never say that I wanted to write a great novel that would survive me, as Richler said. I was just trying to have an interesting life, scoot around Europe a bit, and if anything good came of it, so be it. In retrospect it hasn't been an entire waste."

His modesty is genuine, and impressive for one who has produced so much consistently strong work. And Weintraub doesn't seem like someone to nurse regrets. "I wish I had written a few more novels, between Why Rock the Boat and The Underdogs," he admits, "but I'm going to try to see if I can do that now."

And, given his record, who can doubt him?