The Young Vincent Massey by Claude Bissell (review)

REVIEWS TheYoung Vincent Massey. CLAUDE BISSELL. Toronto, Universityof Toronto Press, •98•. Pp.xii, 266.$2e.5 o. The biographerof VincentMassey faces aconsiderable challenge. A combinationoffinancial independence, social background, andpersonal energymade VincentMassey a man of eclecticinterests. Diplomat,politicalorganizer, benefactor, educator,amateuractor,andpatronof thearts- VincentMassey covered agreatdealof ground.Suchadiversity of interests wouldbedifficult enoughtochronicle weretheyfollowedin sequence. When,aswasoftenthe case withMassey, theywerepursuedsimultaneously, thereisthedangerthat anyattemptatbiography willresultinnumerous anecdotes which,ultimately, telllittleof themanor hisage. Moreover,Massey's personalityis ascomplexashisinterests. On the one hand,he wasan extremeAnglophilewho revelledin the attentionof the Englisharistocracy and who sawOxford as the centreof the intellectual universe. He was also somewhat of a snob and his strict aesthetic and social standards meantthathestood somewhat apartfromthose withwhomhedealt, muchless fromtheaverage Canadian. He seems tohavebeenamanwhomany felt uncomfortable aroundand who, owingto mannerrather than motive, occasionally inspiredactivesuspicion or dislike.Certainly WilliamLyon Mackenzie King'sportrayalof Massey as'aplaceseeker andatimeserver' isnot quitewhatonewouldexpectfor themanwhohaddonesomuchtorevivethe Liberalparty's organization in theopposition years of theearlythirties. On theotherhand,thesameunbending andupper-class VincentMassey countedamonghis friendsAmericanprogressives Walter Lippmannand RaymondMoley, and he knew and supportedthe activitiesof liberalnationalists likeBrookeClaxtonandGrahamSpry.In hisyears asorganizer for theLiberalpartyhespenta greatdealof timeattempting tomovetheparty leftward.At onepointhe evenconsidered the possibility of engineering a mergerwith the ccF,therebycreatingtwo ideologically distinctpartiesin Canada. Mackenzie King'sdistrust of Massey wasdue,at leastin part,to his concernthat Massey's reformist enthusiasms endangeredboth his own position andtheelectoralfutureof theLiberals. Giventhese contradictions andproblems, ClaudeBissell istobecongratulatedforproducing anintelligent andreadable firstvolume inthebiography. He hasmodified thetraditional chronological approach inordertodevelop fully onethemeor activitybefore movingon to the next. He hasalsowrittena modernversion of theold 'life andtimes'biographies of earlieryears.Asa resultthe readerisgivensomeinsightnotjust intoMassey but intoa whole REVIEWS 61 generation of Canadian intellectuals. Forif anything wascentraltoMassey it washisinvolvement in theintellectual life. Fromhisuniversity contacts with Goldwin Smith andGeorge Wrong through hisassociations withthepolitically orientedthinkers of thedepression, hewasactively involved withmuchof the Canadianintellectual •lite. The changing ideasandenthusiasms of that•lite reveal muchofwhatwas happening toCanada inthefirstthirdofthetwentieth century. Massey's personal life alsoreflected thechanges thatweretakingplacein Canadiansociety.The strictMethodismof his grandfatherand even the formalMethodism of hisfatherhadgivenwayinVincenttoanewandsecular viewof theworld.AsBissell suggests, however,the moralearnestness of his Methodistheritageremained,evenasit wasdirectedintotheartsandsocial reform.And if theacademic community became a substitute for theministerial ,asBissell argues, thenHart Houseon theUniversity of Torontocampus becameits cathedral.One suspects that this displacement of evangelical religionintosecular streams wasnotuniquetoVincentMassey. It mayprove tohavebeenamajorforceinshaping ageneration whichremained influenced bytheirreligious upbringing toa greaterdegreethantheythought. Therearecosts totheapproach whichhasbeentakeninthisbiography. It is annoyingto the readerwhen,for example,one is told that Balliolwasan importantexperience for Massey whilewondering if anything isgoingtobe saidaboutthe Oxford years.The biography doeseventually return to this andotherthemesseemingly left asidebutthedisruptionin chronology does jar. Nevertheless, the organization is probablythe mostsuitable one for a biographylike thisand it doesallowa degreeof analysis that wouldnot otherwise bepossible. The slightannoyances do notreallymara verygood work. DOVe; OWl•M University ofAlberta Stitches in Time: the Commonwealth in World Politics. ARNOLD SMITH with CLYDE SAN•ER. Don Mills,GeneralPublishing, a-98a. Pp.xx, 322. TheCommonwealth, liketheHolyRomanempire,isthehuskwhichremained after the rich kernelof empirehad rottedaway.Thosewhoinheritedthe residuefilled it with a meaningits originalownerscould scarcely have imagined.If the Romanempire'ssuccessor wasneitherholy nor Roman, neitheristheCommonwealth atallwhat,in a9a6,LionelCurtisimagined the British empirewouldbecome. Thisimportant bookbyArnoldSmith,thefirst secretary-general of the Commonwealth, isremarkablydevoidof the sentimental rhetoric which surrounds so much of Canadian discussion of the modernCommonwealth. In the book's firstparagraphSmithpresents his argument for theCommonwealth, notin termsof ashared imperialpastand ...