George Woodcock’s Introduction to Canadian Fiction by George Woodcock, and: George Woodcock’s Introduction to Canadian Poetry by George Woodcock (review)

186 LEITERS IN CANADA 1992 sex with anyone but their spouses. Nor are any gay, particularly bitter, funny, or chronically depressed. On the other hand, a great many of them lost a parent early in their lives, travelled around a good deal, changed spouses at least once, and never got rich for any length of time. Clearly the volumes were not meant to be used for social science research, but, as a group photograph, this compilation looks retouched. At the same time, these two guides can be powerful stimulants to biographical research, as they are probably meant to be. Once in a while one comes across details surprising enough to whet the appetite for more. Rosanna Leprohon gave birth to thirteen children, five of whom died in infancy. Charles Gordon had a one-million-dollar estate that was so badly mismanaged by his lawyer that he wound up $1001 000 in debt for most of the rest of his life. Gilbert Parker seemed to know every important person in his era, as did Martha Ostenso, who nevertheless died an alcoholic. The entries on Roberts, Mair, Parker, Seton, Kirby, Hodgins, Blaise, Layton, and Finch, among others, hint at future possibilities. The entries on Kroetsch, Laurence, and Audrey Thomas are surprisingly rich considering their length. The chronological arrangement of the lives has the added bonus of itemizing influential relationships and supports: a number of younger writers, for example, studied creative writing with Mitchell, MacLennan, and Birney. The volumes trace the shadow of our literary history. Despite their limitations, these compilations can be useful in a whole variety of ways. (JOHN ORANGE) George Woodcock. George Woodcock's Introduction to Canadian Fiction ECW Press. 170. $25.00 paper George Woodcock. George Woodcock's Introduction to Canadian PoetnJ ECW Press. 174. $25.00 paper In these two volumes,.George Woodcock, one of our country's finest and most prolific literary critics, provides his personal literary history of Canada's major authors. It is a useful and interesting, if relatively brief survey, flawed only by its rationale. As he explains at the beginning of both volumes, these are collections of the 'unifying introductions' he wrote for the twenty volumes in the ECW press series, Canadian Writers and Th~ir Works, with some updating and amendments. However, the original twenty groupings of writers that 'tended to emphasize both period and various forms of affinity' were chosen not by Woodcock but by the 'editorial fiat' of ECW Press. Consequently, the structure of Woodcock's present literary history was determined by others, and he spends considerable time rationalizing their choices, not always convincingly . This imposed structure results in some unexpectedly fruitful HUMANITIES 187 juxtapositions: for example, his discussion of Knister, W.W.E. Ross, Livesay, and Pratt in the context of Livesay's remark, 'Since poets no longer die young, the challenge is unmistakable: they must either stop writing, or be reborn, again and again!' But he also confesses the many strained comparisons and contrasts: I began with the assumption that in offering-a volume to me the editors had been led in their selection by at least a sense of affinity between the authors who were included. Thus I have always begun by trying to identify the common elements or the significant contrasts. Sometimes the pattern has emerged with felicitous clarity; sometimes I have had to search hard to find it. The untenable generalizations are evident in such chapter titles as 'Madly Off in All Directions' and 'All Kinds to Make a World.' Woodcock begins each chapter with an overview that attempts to establish connections between the five or six authors to be discussed within a context of the socio-historical development of Canadian literature. Some of these surveys are long, perceptive analyses of the historical!geographical roots of our fiction and poetry: for example, those on 'The Rural Realists' and 'The Confederation Poets.' Others (often on contemporary writers) are brief and testify more to his beliefs that Canadian writers abhor schools, that taxonomists like Northrop Frye are not true critics, and that concepts such as 'postmodernisrn and deconstructionism ' are 'vague and ultimately meaningless.' The overviews are followed by comments on the individual authors. Although many are necessarily...