Bob Edwards, the Great White North's equivalent to H. L. Mencken, remains a singular figure in Canadian journalism. His newspapers, published in Wetaskiwin, Leduc, High River, Strathcona, Winnipeg, Port Arthur, and most famously Calgary, skewered politics, society, and business leaders with a fearlessness and outrageousness rarely seen then, now, or in between.

As editor James Martin points out in his illuminating introduction, Bob Edwards seems more modern the farther back in history he recedes; he was the granddaddy of Gonzo Journalism à la Hunter S. Thompson, a freewheeling cultural critic in the spirit of Lester Bangs, a pioneer of satirical reform as evidenced in Frank magazine, and a spoofer of the po-faced reporting of his day in precisely the same way that The Onion is now.

Irresponsible Freaks, Highball Guzzlers and Unabashed Grafters features mountains of Edwards's superb aphorisms, a generous helping of his longer and lesser-known works, and some choice items which have never before seen print, as well as miraculous archival discoveries and many cartoons from Edwards's celebrated Eye Opener. It is a welcome addition to the Bob Edwards canon for those who thought they knew everything about him, and an eye-opening introduction to the uninitiated: "He was writing this stuff a hundred years ago!"

Robert Chambers Edwards (1860 — 1922) delighted discerning readers, scandalized prudes, and shattered the conventions of journalism with his series of self—published one—man newspapers. The first collection of Edward’s writings in over twenty—five years, Irresponsible Freaks, Highball Guzzlers & Unabashed Grafters captures the man in his many, oft contradictory guises: hard—drinking journalist, accomplished fiction writer, Prohibition booster, impish idol—toppler, free—thinker, reluctant MLA and self—promoter. An incendiary wordsmith, Bob Edward’s pasquinades blend fact and fiction with mischievous abandon. The spiritual father of The Onion? At least. A Canadian original? Completely!

Bob Edwards' profile page

James Martin is a columnist for Calgary's FFWD Weekly and a freelance writer on the side. Until last year he was a true-blue Calgarian. He's since moved to Montreal where he is learning how to eat bagels.

James Martin's profile page

ALLAN FOTHERINGHAM has been writing a column for 33 of his 47 years in journalism, first with the Vancouver Sun and later with Southam News, The Financial Post and Sun Media.
He is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, where he was the editor of The Ubyssey. Fotheringham claims to have previously worked as a steelworker and in a food-processing plant, spreading frozen peas.
He has lived in Hearne, Saskatchewan, where he was born and started out in a one-room schoolhouse; in London, England where he dabbled in Fleet Street (with little visible impact); in Ottawa (where he did leave a visible impact); and Toronto, where he did post-graduate work and consumed a lot of sherry. His musings have appeared in the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong, the Christian Science Monitor and the Chilliwack Progress.
He has travelled widely in some 86 countries, has reported from the Soviet Union and China and has been in Africa five times over 20 years. Attempting to avoid work, he now lives, more or less permanently, in Toronto counting the days until he can retire to Positano, Italy.
Fotheringham was a columnist in Washington for five years, covering the Reagan and Bush administrations and has travelled extensively in the United States, missing only four states.
At present, Fotheringham is a columnist for Maclean’s magazine (where he has written on the last page for 26 years) and has also, just recently joined The Globe And Mail. He was a ten-year panelist on the famous Canadian television show, Front Page Challenge.
Fotheringham was the 1964 winner of the Southam Fellowship in Journalism, the 1980 winner of the National Magazine Award for Humour, and the first winner of the National Newspaper Award for column-writing. In 1999, he was inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame along with Conrad Black.
A letter to the editor once said, “He is the greatest cobweb-blower and guff-remover in Canadian journalism.” Time magazine has described him as “Canada’s most consistently controversial newspaper columnist…a tangier critic of complacency has rarely appeared in a Canadian newspaper.”
Fotheringham feels the smartest thing he has ever done is his 1998 marriage to Toronto Art Dealer, Anne Libby and the two of them crowned the Millennium with a six week tour of South America and spent Christmas Day in Antarctica holding hands with a penguin.
He has published six books, the latest being, FOTHERINGHAM’S FICTIONARY OF FACTS AND FOLLIES. Published by Key Porter Books.

Allan Fotheringham's profile page

An impressive compilation of quotations . . . by this master of the written word. —Alberta History

Bob Edwards was the finest journalist Canada has ever know the pleasure of reading. —Macleans