Robert McDougall - Böcker

Again Carleton University’s important lecture series has produced a stimulating volume in which leading figures in the history of Canadian letters and public affairs are seen in the light of today by a group of distinguished scholars and writers. Professor J. M. Beck, Royal Military College of Canada, begins the volume with a view of Joseph Howe, the colour and dynamic "tribune of the people" who led the movement for reform and responsible government in Nova Scotia in the 1840’s. Professor Pacey, University of New Brunswick, takes a fresh look at the achievement of Sir Charles G. D. Roberts and includes in his estimate an evocative description of the university which was the heart of the literary life of Fredericton during the closing decades of the nineteenth century. M. Andre Laurendeau, editor-in-chief of Le Devoir, gives an account of Henri Bourassa, who was the founder and first editor of M. Laurendeau’s newspaper and an outstanding political figure in French Canada; it is a perceptive study of a leader too little known in English-speaking Canada whose blend of Canadian and French-Canadian nationalism made him a controversial figure in his day. Professor Stanley R. Mealing, Carleton University, brings John Graves Simcoe into sharp focus in a deft and occasionally ironic treatment of the career-soldier who was lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1792 to 1796. M. Robert Elie, director of L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Montreal, and well known as a novelist and critic, presents a moving re-creation of the inner life of Saint-Denys Garneau, whose intensely personal poetry has had a profound influence in French Canada since his tragic death in 1943 at the age of thirty-one. Professor M. S. Donnelly, University of Manitoba, discusses the most emphatic and revered of our journalists, John W. Dafoe, whose editorial campaigns on most o the great issues that have affected Canada in the twentieth century reached a wide audience through the Winnipeg Free Press. Professor Roy Daniells, University of British Columbia, closes the volume with a sensitive and gracefully written essay on Emily Carr which illuminates this artist’s discovery of herself, of her west-coast environment, and of how she must paint and write. The lecture series, of which the fourth is printed in this volume, grew out o fa larger programme at Carleton University for postgraduate studies in the cultural history of Canada, now embodied in the Institute of Canadian Studies, established at Carleton in 1957 to take advantage of the University’s proximity to the National Library, the Public Archives of Canada, and the many other sources of information which Ottawa makes available to it. The Director of the Institute, Robert L. McDougall, is also the Editor of the series. The Concern of the sponsors of the Series has been to secure a creative view of the ideas and values of the past from the vantage point of the present through a happy conjunction of speaker and subject. That this has been accomplished will be appreciate by a sampling of the contents. Publication of the first series of Our Living Tradition in 1957 was warmly received by readers and reviewers, leading to a prompt reprint. The second and third series, published in 1959 in one volume, of even broader scope, also found an interested audience. The fourth series should be equally popular.

In this book, distinguished scholars and writers of today discuss leading figures in the history of Canadian letters and public affairs, providing a treasury of information on Canadians of importance, and a meeting between Canada’s past and present. Robert L. McDougall begins with an essay on Thomas Chandler Haliburton, humourist, satirist, and creator of Sam Slick. J. M. S. Carless deals with George Brown, Liberal leader, and proprietor of the Toronto Globe. J. S. Tassle examines the life and work of Philippe Aubert de Gaspe, seigneur, lawyer, and author of the first French-Canadian prose classic, Les Anciens Canadiens, which he created when in his seventies. A.J.M. Smith, himself a poet, supports his opinion of Duncan Campbell Scott as a "remarkable, if not impeccable, poet." James A. Gibson discusses Sir Robert Borden as Leaders of the Opposition and Prime Minister, and his contributions to the theory and practice of Canadian autonomy. Earle Birney, poet and novelist, points out that the trend of modern criticism has led to misunderstanding and misprizing of the poetry of E.J. Pratt, which is therefore too commonly regarded as "old fashioned." Barker Fairley, scholar and artist, discusses Frederick H. Varley, outstanding Canadian artist and one of the Group of Seven, who, in the intense humanism of his best work, exemplifies a tradition sadly neglected, the author believes, in contemporary Canadian painting. Guy Sylvestre describes how the main events of the life of Francois-Xavier Garneau, historian and author of Histoire du Canada, paralleled important milestones in the history of the nation. David M. L. Farr tells how John S. Ewart, political dissenter, regarded the exposition of self-government as the "chiefest part of Canadian history." Jean Bruchesi, drawing on the personal correspondence of his subject, gives the story of Louis Joseph Papineau, patriot and leader of French Canada. Robin S. Harris finds that Egerton Ryerson’s prose writings on religious and civil liberties and on education are still "full of life and vigour." James Reaney, whose own poetry has won him two Governor-General’s awards, discusses symbolism in the poetry of Isabella Valancy Crawford, whom he calls a "precursor of Pratt." The lecture series, of which the second and third are printed in this volume, grew out of a larger programme at Carleton University for postgraduate studies in the cultural history of Canada, now embodied in the Institute of Canadian Studies established at Carleton in 1957 to take advantage of the University’s proximity to the National Library, the Public Archives of Canada, and the many other sources of information which Ottawa makes available to it. The concern of the sponsors of the Series has been to secure a creative view of the ideas and values of the past from the vantage point of the present through a happy conjunction of speaker and subject. That this has been accomplished will be appreciated by a sampling of the contents. Publication of the first series of Our Living Tradition in 1957 was warmly received by readers and reviewers, leading to a prompt reprinting. The new volume, of even broader scope, should find an interested audience awaiting it.

This fifth volume continues the dialogue between the present and the past begun in 1957 in this series of public lectures sponsored by the Institute of Canadian Studies of Carleton University. The theme of French-Canadian nationalism appears, directly or indirectly, in most of these lectures: it is present in George Stanley’s account of Louis Riel, the "martyr of the French-Canadian nation"; and in John Matthews’ discussion of the long life of Charles Mair, who is studied today mainly by historians because of his participation in the first Riel Rebellion. Mair was a poet too, and Matthew finds in his life and work a dichotomy which he believes reflects the dichotomy of Canada itself.Blair Neatby’s tribute to the skills of Mackenzie King as a party leader includes a reminder that King’s severest test as a party leader was in the task of keeping English and French Canada together in time of war. Jean Ethier-blais considers that Paul Emile Borduas is the Canadian artist who best represents the qualities and defects of our society, and that he has influenced virtually all Canadian painters of note. He contributes a sensitive evaluation of the revolutionary vitality of this French Canadian who was an innovator in painting and a social reformer as well.David Hayne considers another French-Canadian artist, Louis-Honore Frechette, who enjoyed literary fame at home and was a spokesman for his people abroad in the 1860s when his first collection of lyric verse was published, but has since been neglected by scholars.W.A. Mackintosh writes on O.D. Skelton, scholar, teacher, and writer, whose reputation is assured by his role in building the Department of External Affairs, as confidential adviser of prime ministers, and as biographer of Sir Wilfred Laurier. Wilder Penfield contributes an affectionate personal memoir of Sir William Osler, the great physician who was considered an iconoclast in his day, and yet, by defying tradition, made way for modernization I the field of medicine. Finally, to return to the theme of French-Canadian nationalism, two lectures by Mason Wade on Oliver Asselin trace the career of this crusading journalist, and assess the rich intellectual, spiritual, and cultural legacy by Asselin to the present generations.