Humanities

HUMANITIES tq 483 attack"abstraction" as such, instead ofoutlining the peculiar dilemma of the contemporaty Canadian artist caught (as Fairley puts it) "between the chocolate box and the non-objective." F. H. Varley is the ostensible subject of the lecture, but most of the time you can't see the fIgure for the landscape. James Reaney tries to set free the essential Crawford from the rubbish ofher poetry; he transforms a second-rate great-grandmother into the lost oracle ofa still unfulfilled tradition ofCanadian poetry. Here, at the end of OHr Living Tradition, the "presence" of the past has left its "pastness" far behind. (MILTON WILSON) With the long-awaited appearance of R. E. Watters' A Check List oj Canadian LiteratHre and Background Materials 1628-1950 (University of Toronto Press, pp. xx, 789, $15.00), students of Canadian culture and letters have at their disposal an indispensable work ofreference. But before they use it they will need to be clear about what it is and what it isnot, and to this end Professor Watters has described the scope and method of the book in a modest and informative preface. The work is divided into two parts, with sepatate functions, and therefore , like most compound tools, it combines convenience with some unreliability. Part I "attempts to record all known titles in the recognized forms of fiction, poetry and drama . .. produced by English-speaking Canadians up to 1950," that is until the National Library's Canadiana lists take over. Library locations are given for each title (in both patts), though these are incomplete for many titles, and merely indicate what catalogue or catalogues were used at different stages by the compilers. Part II, the "background materials," is "a more or less selective listing of books by Canadians which seem likely to be of value to anyone studying the literature or culture ofCanada." This section is classified under biography, education, essays and addresses, local history, social history, religion and morality, scholatship, travel and description. Apart from the over-all bases ofselection, which are bound to be arbitrary, expecially in a project conducted over a period of years by a number ofpersons, these classifications are vulnerable, as Professor Watters knows, especially since they have to do the work ofa subject-index. It is a pity, for example, that much of the material listed in "essays and addresses" should be put in as "background ." The prose of reflection and comment belongs in the main stream ofour literature. Surely The Gin Mill Primer, by J. W. Bengough, and Bliss Carman's Address to the Graduating Class 1911 ofthe Unitrinian School of Personal Harmonizing belong with Christine Matgaret Hender- 484 tq LB'ITERS IN CANADA: 1959 son's The BlueJay's Message and Ebenezer Clemo's The Life and Adventures of Simon Seek, or, Canada in all Shapes-in Part I. We may be grateful that the definition of "Canadian author" is very broad (see p. viii), and regret that "transactions and proceedings" of the numerous learned and would-be-learned societies could not be included. It was decided to exclude "military, economic or constitutional history, and writings in law, commerce and the sciences," as having a "less immediate" relation to literature, a policy which breaks down continually in practice; "social history" is not a useful category. But any work of reference is open to comments of this kind, and we should be thankful for the opportunity to hone our knowledge and our prejudices upon the megalith which Professor Watters and his helpers have raised. We shall all be instructed, impressed, and assisted by this book. (MILLAR MAcLURll) In the words of the editor, A. W. Yeats, Rudyard Kipling: A Bibliographical Catalogue by James McG. Stewart (Halifax and Toronto: Dalhousie and Toronto Universiry Presses, pp. xviii, 673, $20.00) "does not purport to be a scientific bibliography but is rather a bibliographical catalogue that strives to approach bibliographical accuracy." I am not in a position to judge the accuracy of the bibliographical descriptions, hut consistency of method and Mr. Yeats's precision of statement ahout the material he inherited from the original compiler of the catalogue inspire confidence. At one period it was hoped the work would...