The Porcupine's Quill
Celebrating forty years on the Main Street
of Erin Village, Wellington County
BOOKS IN PRINT
The Amorous Unicorn by Florence Vale
Butterflies and briar roses, swans, honey and milk ... this is the poetry of thighs, fresh and uncomplicated, unashamedly erotic, and having nothing whatsoever to do with bees or cows except by association. Tulips and robins and cherries ... Flory’s hatpin pricks of sensibility thrust deep into the balloon of Toronto civility. The Amorous Unicorn also includes twenty-one of Vale’s erotic and whimsical drawings, three of which are reproductions of watercolours in pastel tones.
Review quote
The Amorous Unicorn, by artist Florence Vale, is a children’s book for adults. Vale approaches her subject -- erotic adult life -- with a child’s abandon. The book is a grand romp through the life of the senses, full of pollen-laden bees, black butterflies and sweaty thighs. ... The Dionysian dimension is delicately tempered by moments of mature sadness, auch as in ‘‘Leaves Hung Down’’, an understated lament for a dead child. Vale’s poems scorn laboured interpretation; her craft is open, generous, and confident -- a gift to the reader.’
—Bruce Pirie, Canadian Literature
Review quote
‘Here is yet another beautifully produced book from the Porcupine’s Quill. This attractive little volume features the work of artist Florence Vale (born 1909). Twenty-one of Vale’s drawings are reproduced here, for the most part frankly erotic in subject. Vale’s pen-and-ink drawings are elegant and whimsical, and the volume is enhanced by three attractive watercolours in pastel tones. The artwork is accompanied by fifty short poems by the artist, witty amorous ditties, naughty limericks, and poems celebrating sexual desire, which complement the drawings. This tasteful erotica, distinctive in its feminine point of view, is intended for an adult audience.’
—Vivienne Denton, Canadian Materials
Review quote
‘The Amorous Unicorn by Florence Vale dances with glee around the inhibitions and sensibilities of her friends. Vale has poetic talent, and a strong feel for imagery. When she is not being entertaining or sexy, she is very good, as in ‘‘Mulberry Bush’’:
Tear the heart away
become a mulberry bush
Worms will eat your leaves
spitting pure silk
to be spun
and woven /
safely impersonal
‘In a workshop, those last few lines would have been removed to make a more poetic statement. But it wouldn’t have been Flory.’
—Michael Warren, Poetry Toronto
Photo by Wally Ballach.
Florence Vale was born in Ilford, England on 18 April, 1909, and emigrated to Canada, to Toronto, with her family, fifteen months later. Her formal schooling ended with grade seven, when she went to work full-time at a job she hated in Toronto’s garment district, for the sum of eight dollars a week. When she was eighteen, she met Dutch-born artist, Albert Jacques Franck, when he was a swimming instructor at the Oakwood pool. Two years later they were married. Their life together is described in Harold Town’s Albert Franck: Keeper of the Lanes, published after Franck’s death in 1973. Florence Vale’s career as a professional artist had begun in 1948. A major retrospective of her work was organized in 1980 by Natalie Luckyj for the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, and toured galleries throughout central and eastern Canada, including the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Dalhousie Gallery in Halifax. Her work is in major public and private collections throughout Canada, the United States and Great Britain. Vale’s tiny 1965 pen and ink drawing Pyramid of Roses inspired Harold Town’s series of Vale Variations as well as Pyramid of Roses, Christopher Chapman and Gordon McLennan’s 70mm and Dolby stereo short film production, with music by Harry Freedman, celebrating both Town’s Variations and the original Vale drawing. The first volume of her work, Florence Vale: Selected Drawings and Verse, was published in 1979 by Aya Press, Toronto. The Amorous Unicorn was published in 1984 by The Porcupine’s Quill, Erin, Ontario. Vale died in 2003. Author photo by Wally Ballach.
The Porcupine's Quill would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. The financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) is also gratefully acknowledged.
