The Journeys of Charles Sangster: A Biographical and Critical Investigation by Frank M. Tierney (review)

humanities 459 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 there are often extra-textual mementos that cannot be easily translated into print. Lucy Peel, for example, sends to her family a lock of hair from her first-born child. She mentions this in the text; otherwise we would never know. It is not something that can be reproduced in a mass printing. However, the Clinch diary is not trying to accommodate such problems; rather, the visual additions are there to prettify history, leaving a popularly received version of Victorian history uncontested and untroubled. There is no >reading against the grain= of this classed journal by the editor; rather she uses markers of Clinch=s class to promote the attractiveness of the published edition. Readers are given no context in which to place Clinch=s selfpresentation . Hallett=s edition of Sarah Clinch=s diary will appeal to armchair historians, while Little=s edition of Lucy Peel=s journal makes a more substantial scholarly contribution. (KATHRYN CARTER) Frank M. Tierney. The Journeys of Charles Sangster: A Biographical and Critical Investigation Borealis Press 2000. xiv, 276. $39.95, $19.95 Frank M. Tierney=s seminal volume of essays and supplemental appendices on Charles Sangster=s verse is something of a crowning flourish to his multifaceted career in the area of Canadian literature. Tierney is the editor of four scholarly editions of Sangster=s verse as well as a variety of critical works and a number of his own books of poetry. He has been a tireless steward of the literary culture of his homeland in the Ottawa Valley, past and present. Many years of slogging hard work went into the Sangster editions, to the effect that few other early Canadian writers are as well represented by current scholarship. The volumes of Sangster=s poems, appearing between 1976 and 1984, are quite exemplary technically and replete with scholarly reference. This new book presents the scholarly material in a new light B one that is perhaps a little more amenable to the general reader. The essays discuss the main themes and stylistic elements of Sangster=s poetry, often from a mythological point of view. Tierney argues convincingly that Sangster=s style was continually developing and maturing over the period covered by his poems= publication history. Tierney also suggests that there are thematic links between the text of this oeuvre, the narrative of its revisions, and Sangster=s spiritual yearnings and life-quest. These linkages make for a rich excursus on the mind and art of a fascinating and significant figure of early Canadian writing. The book is infused with Tierney=s love of his subject (>the Wordsworth of Canada,= as he says). For this reason, coupled with a satisfying scholarly acumen, The Journeys of Charles Sangster is quite a pleasant read. The 460 letters in canada 2001 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 facsimiles of letters and photographs also contribute to this aspect of the book. There are a few quibbles that might be mentioned, however. Tierney=s interest in the mythical analyses of such scholars as Joseph Campbell and Northrop Frye could be seen as a little too casually presented. Indeed, in a misprint, the bibliography lists Frye as the author of two of Campbell=s books. One wishes perhaps that Tierney might have gone further into a depth-psychological analysis of the heroic archetypes that inform Sangster=s >journeys.= Similarly, the biographical essay, though tantalizingly brief, really leaves the reader wondering if some of the appendixed and endnoted material couldn=t have been narrativized more completely, so that the biography were more satisfying. This is a story the general reader will want to read. Another minor flaw is Tierney=s decision to refer to Sangster=s poetics and themes in unembarrassed comparisons with British poets such as Tennyson, Browning, and, of course, Wordsworth. While one applauds such gestures for their resistance to colonial deference, the obvious objection that Sangster is not in the same league could have been trounced more rigorously. Sangster has been referred to by some as >the Father of Canadian poetry.= It is perhaps absurd in these times of canon shake...