Periodical Writing

362 PERIODICAL WRITING churless-move steadily and with warmth. One would have thought that Mortgage MalWr was doomed at the outset by its author's decision to call his hero the churl on every page. Instead, the word takes on a new and friendly meaning. X. PERIODICAL WRITING Millar MacLure Since Canadian periodicals have not been brought under critical scrutiny in "Letters in Canada" for some time, I shall make clear at the outset the limitations of this review. It is confined, with one exception, to periodicals in English; scientific, professional, and technical journals are omitted; various slick-paper publications, house- and trade- organs (often with superb photographs) are left to professional waiting-rooms, special subscription lists, and Christmas shoppers; popular publications, for example Maclean's and Liberty, are given less analytical treatment than they deserve; poetry magazines are passed over, and so are any fugitive, short-term or irregularly published periodicals, including collections of regional archives. These are major operations to perform upon the slender body of Canadian periodical publishing. Not much is left: we have nothing analogous to the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Listener, the London Magazine even (subsidized, let us say, by the Atkinson Foundation as the London Magazine is by the Daily Mirror); only three university quarterlies, two long-established journals of "opinion and the arts," a few scholarly journals, the popular ones already mentioned, and some miscellaneous publications of varying interest and importance. For this year at least, it seems proper to characterize briefly each of the periodicals, and then to notice those contributions to each which are of special interest or value. The Canadian Forum (36 Yonge St., Toronto; Corresponding Editor: Alan Creighton) is unique among Canadian pUblications. F. R. Scott, prominent among its former supporters, has recently accused it (in its correspondence columns) of il gran rifiuto; it has not remained sufficiently socialist to suit him. But an American friend of sound literary judgment and liberal political views, to whom I occasionally send a copy, speaks of it as "having the character of the old Nation," being "stout and incorruptible." The uncommitted intelligence is rare in our LETTERS IN CANADA, 1955 363 society, in which climate and history combine to recommend comfort and safety as defences against the perils of being a Canadian. Yet in these dull-looking pages, thrown together (it seems) any old way, are to be found some of the most thoughtful and independent contributions to the art of civilization which Canadians produce. The occasional long review article, "Turning New Leaves," redeems an otherwise disorganized review section; other columns keep patient watch upon the arts, and the political commentary is always well informed and provocative . Philip Stratford's two amusing reports on French "alcoholism" (July and October), which are in the genre virtually created by A. J. Leibling in the New Yorker, are worthy of special mention, as is A. R. M. Lower's "Critique of Toynbee" (August). Yet one must confess that, bright, literate, and timely though it is, the Forum rarely prints the leisurely and thoughtful, urbane, and discursive essay which should be the flower of that civilization it upholds. We might hope to find such essays in the university quarterlies, and occasionally we do. R. L. Fauconnier's short study of Gissing ("Killjoy with Clear Eyes," Queen's Quarterly, Summer) and A. R. Bevan's discovery of a minor academic eccentric ("James de Mille and Archibald MacMechan," Dalhousie Review, Autumn) barely come into this category, which is perhaps better represented by the late R. C. Wallace's retrospective meditations on his career as scientist and educator ("As I Look Back," Queen's Quarterly, Winter). But the prevailing tone of the quarterlies is far from casual; the lectern is more in evidence than the easy chair, and, if we consider their traditional function in our society, that is not surprising. In the 60th anniversary issue of the Queen's Quarterly (Winter; 1954), A. s. P. Woodhouse observed that "apart from the classroom, the Humanities in Canada have found in the university quarterlies their principal medium." The humanist strategy as a civilizing force takes one of two forms: either a brisk, attentive , and critical comment on the current...