Robertson Davies by Judith Skelton Grant, and: Morley Callaghan by Patricia Morley (review)

HUMANITIES 451 Unfortunately the romantic poetic stance that Layton found congenial and necessary in the Canada of the fifties now intervenes between the poet and his audience. At the turn of the century T.E. Hulme complained that the modems find the 'high-falutin" tone of even the best of the romantics offensive. A Shelley or even a Nietzsche might not inconceivably claim that poetry was the queen of the arts: it is much less easy for a contemporary. The critic that Layton calls for will have to weigh carefully the demands of contemporary art against the requirements of Layton's unique Canadian situation. The editing of this collection has not been thorough. Layton's several accounts of his trip to Israel contain repetitions of incidents and paragraphs . Individuals and controversies are not identified, nor is the paper or little magazine where Layton published his early political articles: what, for example, is the Fail-Ye-Times? The reader would also appreciate some indication of the scope and nature of Layton's editing of his Laski thesis: did he change content as well as expression? (SANDRA DJWA) Judith Skelton Grant. Robertson Davies McClelland & Stewart. 58. $1.95 Patricia Morley. Morley Callaghan McClelland & Stewart. 72. $2.95 These two slim books are part of McClelland & Stewart's 'Canadian Writers' series, which is, the publisher proclaims, 'a series of handbooks designed to provide the student and general reader with compact and inexpensive introductions to significant figures on the Canadian literary scene.' Writing such a study of a prolific writer like Robertson Davies or Morley Callaghan must be rather like composing a sonnet: it must be concise, order(y, and must resolve a complex body of work into a lyrically rigorous pattern. Judith Skelton Grant and Patricia Morley approach the exercise in different ways, Grant by focusing on the author more than on his works, Morley by conducting a whirlwind tour of plots, themes, and techniques. Grant concentrates on the writer, treating Davies's works as reflections of the man, his temperament, and his 'world.' She begins by explaining that her aim is to prOVide 'a map of the terrain and some hints of the riches to be mined,' but she might have said it was to give a sketch of a rich and engaging personality. This limitation turns out to be the strength of the book, because Grant is exceptionally well-informed about Davies's erratic career and his widely scattered writing; and she includes a fine bibliography as well. She specifies two characteristics, his delight in vivid and idiosyncratic character and his love of information, features 452 LEITERS IN CANADA 1978 which then guide her attention when she considers his writings. The love of information - which turns Davies's novels into lively encyclopaedias on theatre, music, magic, journalism, saints, and so on could have prompted a thematic study of the 'polymath: the know-it-all, who in Davies's fiction is strangely ignorant of his own heart; or it could have prompted a structural study of the novels. Instead, it directs Grant's attention at sources, that is, at the mind and habits of the author. But she knows her subject so well that she makes it fascinating. For example, she tells us little about A Mixture of Frailties by explaining that Tosti's 'Good-Bye!', the sentimental song that recurs in the novel, was one that Davies 'heard Melba sing on a Victor Red Label record over and over again during a bout of whooping cough when he was six'; or that the joke in the closing chapter comes from Joe Miller's JESTS: or, the WIT'S VadeMecum (1739), a joke which he also refers to in 'The Hue and Cry after a Good Laugh' in A Voice from the Attic. But she does make us feel that we know Davies better and the inquisitive, retentive, and playful cast of his mind. As a result of this treatment the book sometimes reads like a preliminary study for a longer work, and its concern with the character of The Author occasionally leads to gushing. As a student's handbook to the full scope of Davies's plays, novels, and essays it...