Douglas Coupland plans book on Terry Fox
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 | 4:59 PM ET
CBC Arts
Fox is the amputee who set out to run across Canada in 1980, but was stopped by a recurrence of the cancer that had claimed his right leg.
Even though he never completed his Marathon of Hope before his death the following year, the curly-haired young man became a national hero in the fight against cancer.
Coupland, whose 1991 novel gave name to a generation of disaffected twentysomethings, is collecting material for the photo book, which will be published in the spring by Douglas & McIntyre.
Terry Fox (CP photo)
"I can only look at this stuff for about 20 minutes at a time before losing it," he told the Canadian Press. "These images never lose their initial impact."
Coupland's current book, Souvenir of Canada 2, includes a section on a visit the author took to the Terry Fox museum in Port Coquitlam, B.C. It includes a photo lovingly depicting a torn sock once worn by Fox.
Fox's legacy is kept alive by the people who participate in the annual run named after him.
Souvenir of Canada 2 is the follow-up to Coupland's first book dedicated to Canadian ephemera. In it, he continues to document his love for such mundane items as stubby beer bottles and Sherwood hockey sticks.
A conceptual artist as well as a writer, the B.C.-based Coupland is also the author of such works as 2001's All Families Are Psychotic.
