Other Books

LETTERS IN CANADA, 1955 355 An interesting pair of regimental histories has been received. The pattern of Major R. L. Rogers' History of the Lincoln and Weiland Regiment (Lake St. Armories, St. Catharines, Ont., viii, 465 pp., $5.00) is orthodox: his intention, "to provide a reliable account of what took place," is satisfactorily accomplished. His regiment must be pleased with the accurately detailed work of its historian; the chapter on Kapelsche Veer (to single out one episode) is undoubtedly the most informative account of that dismal operation yet published. Maps and photographs are adequate, although these might have been better. Major Rogers' book makes a useful contribution to Canadian military history. An entirely different approach, and quite a new one in the field, marks Farley Mowat's history of the Hastings and Prince Edward ·Regiment. Rogers firmly restrains emotion; Mowat, in The Regiment (McClelland & Stewart, xx, 312 pp., $6.00), is centrally concerned with it. He jettisons appendices, pre-war records, nominal rolls, footnotes; and he develops a theme, the regimental entity, which becomes for its members at once a fortress and a refuge. Names, dates, places are properly supplied, but they never strangle narrative. Mowat writes with imagination , and he knows all about atmosphere. His battle scenes are especially well done. Excellent maps attend the reader tlu ughout. Bitterness arising from topical issues sometimes jars a little; yet that too was part of the regiment's war. Mowat's approach to battle narrative has something in common with that of Bruce- Catton, while Major Rogers writes rather in the manner of Williams' careful work. There is room for both. Certainly no one would suggest that one need replace the other; but unit historians now preparing or contemplating ·their accounts would be well advised to examine Mowat's methods especially, for his is the first Canadian regimental history (possibly excepting Major Cassidy's Warpaih) to transcend the limited appeal of such books. IX. OTHER BOOKS It is unfortunate that all the books received for review cannot 'be fitted ne.lltly into one or another of the separate sections. The heading "Other Books" suggests unfairly that the works which fall under it have no proper identity. The section is intended, however, simply as an editorial convenience; the works included in it are either of a special 356 OTHER BOOKS nature or are the only contribution to their subject to be published in Canada. The Alberta Golden Jubilee Anthology (McClelland & Stewart, 471 pp., $5.00), edited by W. G. Hardy, and Saskatchewan Harvest (McClelland & Stewart, 224 pp., $1.00, paper, $2.50, cloth), edited by Carlyle King, are both of a special nature, and have been reviewed together by Mr. R. L. McJ?ougall. Fiftieth anniversary celebrations in Alberta and Saskatchewan have been given a cultural turn in two special collections: Alberta Golden Jubilee Anthology, edited by W. G. Hardy, and Saskatchewan Harvest, edited by Carlyle King. The first is a big glossy book, doubtless underwritten by an oil well, complete with twenty full-colour plates and chapter-head drawings; and in it a host of Albertan authors specially commissioned for the occasion catalogue the beauties and resources of their province and inquire with remarkable persistence into its past. The historian, the sociologist, and the economist will be grateful for what they have turned up. But though the short story and poetry are given a place, the creative imagination is, it would seem, by policy held in abeyance, and the whole nature of the command performance, restricted to Albertans yet spread out over 106 contributors (by actual count), can scarcely result in a high standard of writing. 'The second, Saskatchewan Harvest, is a small plain book, doubtless underwritten by a glutted Wheat Pool, which contains, not a .collection of Saskatchewan writing ("For there are no 'Saskatchewan' writers," the editor ' observes, a little sententiously; "there are only writers"), but a body of writing about Saskatchewan. Here the creative imagination is brought forward, the inhibitions of command performance are absent, the contributors few and not required to produce birth certificates. "By bringing these selections together and arranging them in a certain order," Professor King says in his preface, "I have tried to show...