Fiction

258 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY Across the Arctic seas (79 pp., $2.50); The forsaken plot in the little churchyard (c. 1950, 32 pp., $1.50)-from the pen of John, a Suffolk herd boy (Roche'. Point, Ont., the author). CANADIAN AUTHORS' ASSOCIATION, MONTREAL BRANCH, Poetry year book, 1950 (Montreal, c/o Canadian Handicrafts Guild, 20-25 Peel St., x, 40 pp., $1). CHILD (PHILIP), The Victorian house and other poems (Toronto, Ryerson, x, 54 pp., $2.25). CONKLIN (WILLIAM), Wind-blown leaves (Carillon poetry chap-books; Foieyet, Ont., Crucible Press; Prince Albert, Sask'J the author, 600 West 22nd St., 18 pp., 50c.). CONTEM PORARY VERSE, Anniversary number, 1941-1951 (Fall 1951, no. 36, 28 PP'J 3Se.). DUDDRIDGE (HUGH), Seen from my seeder step: a volunteer crop of verse from a Saskatchewan farm (Prince Albert, Sask., the author, 327 West 14th St., 1950, viii, 73 pp., $1). EZRA (1. B.), The golden kernel and other poems (Toronto, Derby Publishing Co., xii, 115 pp.). FOUND (LlLIAN), What matter what way; foreword by WILFRID EGGLESTON (Ottawa, A. H. Jarvis, 328 Laurier Ave., W.; James Hope & Sons, 61 Sparks St., 1950, iv, 36 pp., 50c.). FRISCH (ANTHONY), Third poems (Hull, Ivy Publishing Co., P.O. Box 225j Ottawa, the author, ii, 29 pp., $1). GOWMAN (HENRY), Pickle crow and other poems (Carillon poetry chap-books; Foleyet, Ont., Hilda M. Ridley, P.O. Box 155, 18 pp., 75c.) . HORNYANSKY (MICHAEL), The Queen of Sheba; Newdigate prize poem, 1951 (Oxford, Basil Blackwell; Toronto, Copp Clark, 14 pp., 50c.). HOWARD (BLANCHE MUIRHEAD), Reach for a star (Toronto, Ryerson, vi, 10 pp., 50c.). JAMESON (EDWARD A.), Poems (Carillon poetry chap-books; Foleyet, ant., Hilda M. Ridley, P.O. Box 155, 18 pp., 75c.). LAYTON (IRVINO), The black huntsmen (Montreal, the author, 8035 Kildare Ave., Cote St. Luc, 56 pp.) . MACINTOSH (CLAIRE HARRIS), The spirit of the Bluenose and other poems; foreword by Rev. Sjster MAURA (Halifax, Imperial Press Limited, viii, 44 pp., $2) . ORFORD (McLEOD), Inverhuron and other poems (Carillon poetry chap-books; Foleyet, Ont., Hilda M. Ridley, P.O. Box 155, 20 PP'J 75c.). POETRY COMMONWEALTH, No.8, Canadian number, ed. EARLE BIRNEY (London, Eng., c/ o Lionel Monteith, ed., 31 Dulwich Village, 19 pp., Is. 6d.). RYERSON POETRY CHAP-BOOKS, City hall street, by RAYMOND SOUSTER (8 pp.); East coast, by ELIZABETH BREWSTER (8 pp.); Silver shadows, by THERESA E. THOMSON (8 pp.) (Toronto, Ryerson, $1 each) . SASKATCHEWAN POETRY SOCIETY, The Saskatchewan poetry book, 1951-52 (Regina, the Society, 2514A, 15th Ave., ii, 47 pp., 40c.). SAUNDERS (THOMAS), Horizontal world (Toronto, Ryerson, 41 pp., $2.25). SCOTT (DUNCAN CAMPBELL), Selected poems; with a memoir by E. K. BROWN (Toronto, Ryerson, xliv, 176 pp., $3.50) . SELLE (LEN G.), Moments and other poems (Carillon poetry chapbooks ; Fraserdale, Ont., the author, $1). SMITH (KAY), Footnote to the Lord's Prayer, and other poems (New writers' series, no. 7; MontreaJ, First Statement Press, 36 pp., $1) . WILKINSON (ANNE), Counterpoint to sleep (New writers' series, no. 8; Montreal, First Statement Press, 36 pp., $1). II. FICTION CLAUDE T. BISSELL There are in Canada only a few established, professional novelists and relatively a great number of writers who produce one or two novels and then relapse into silence. The mathematical probabilities are that a given year will be represented by only one or two writers of LETTERS IN CANADA: 1951 259 the former type. This year is unusual because it saw the publication of books by three of our most firmly established novelists. Miss Mazo de la Roche, and Morley Callaghan, are two inescapable names in any account of contemporary Canadian fiction: both began to publish novels in the twenties, and both were instrumental in raising the Canadian novel above a provincial status. Hugh MacLennan, although his career as a novelist began only in 1941, established himself quickly and authoritatively so that now periodicals of such weight and eminence as Time and the Times Literary Supplement look upon him as the most persuasive literary voice in Canada today. Of these three novelists, Miss de la Roche demands the least detailed consideration. Her latest novel, Renny's Daughter, takes its place, for the time being, as the last...