Humanities

HUMANITIES tq 48 I by conventional critics. The real hero ofthe chronicle is Philip Astley, who made such a good thing out ofequestrian acts before the Revolution; the moral seems to be that cultural exchanges are most successful at the level of physical skill. One would hardly guess that Mr. Leathers is describing the activities of "the quality," of a splendid if sometimes disreputable company of gifted, vivacious, temperamental, adventurous popular idols and the "harlotry players" who supported them; in his book they all appear like Sunday afternoon guests in the parlour of some provincial clergyman of Methodist extraction, presenting their engraved cards with press clippings attached. (MILLAR MACLURE) A devotee of the Canadian poets of the nineties, Arthur S. Bourinot justly notes in the Preface to his latest briefvolume that he is "still a voice crying in the wilderness" for the publication "of letters of our Canadian writers." Since it is unlikely that his cry will be answered in the near future by unendowed Canadian publishers, we must be grateful for Mr. Bourinot 's private efforts and hope that Canadian writers (or their families) will endow our university libraries with the personal records so valuable to literary historians. Mr. Bourinot's new collection, Some Letters ifDuncan Campbell Scott, Archibald Lampman and Others (Ottawa: the editor, 158 Carleton Road, Rackliffe, pp. viii, 64, $3 .50), throws valuable light on the character and ideas of D. C. Scott. Of particular interest is a correspondence between Scott and E. K. Brown which reveals much about the editorial background of the posthumous Lampman volume At the Long Sal/It. Mr. Bourinot does not state the principles which have governed his selection of these letters from a larger correspondence, and he does not follow recognized procedures ofdocumentation and proofreading; nevertheless , his collection is a positive if minor contribution to Canadian studies. A second devotee of these poets, Miss Elsie Pomeroy, has remembered the master of the group by editing a pamphlet titled Tributes through the Years: The Centenary ofthe Birth of Sir Charles C. D. Roberts, January 10, 1960 (Toronto: The editor, 21I College Street, pp. iv, 19, $1.00). It is a slender but sincere memoriaL Though lacking the incentive of a centenary year, Will R. Bird and Alec Lucas have produced in Atlantic Anthology (McClelland & Stewart, pp. x, 3ro, $6.00) a book in the stock-taking, anniversary mood. Beginning with "Letters Patents from King Henry VII to John Cabot" and ending with Eileen Cameron Henry's lyric "Harmony Harbour," the 482. tq LETTERS IN CANADA: 1959 book presents a variety of short stories, anecdotes, poems, historical documents, and articles on the cultural, social, and political history ofthe region- in the editor's words, "a panorama ofa region that has endured more and gained less than the rest ofthe Dominion." Thematic relevance has taken precedence over style in the selection of material; nevertheless, the anthology is an honest introduction to the traditions, temperament, and achievements of Canada's oldest community. (HuGO MCPHERSON) As editor of the twelve lectures of Our Living Tradition, Second and Third Series (University ofToronto Press, pp. xvi, 2.88, $6.50), Robert L. McDougall praises his wares because they increase our perception "not only ofthe pastness ofthe past, but ofits presence." The borrowed flourish from T. S. Eliot applies, however, less to each separate lecture than to the collection as a whole. These studies of notable Canadians range from nostalgic commemorations to prophetic revaluations. Only a few manage to create the balance and exchange between familiar landmark and changed landscape that the title of the book suggests. I am thinking of David M. L. Farr's lecture on John S. Ewart, A. J. M. Smith's attempt to redefine the sensibility of Duncan Campbell Scott, and, best of all, the editor's own lecture on Haliburton, which retains in print what he claims for the series as a whole: the "clarity, directness and liveliness" of a good public lecture. And there are others who at least aim at a·similar balance, such as J. M. S. Careless on George Brown and Robin S. Harris on Egerton Ryerson. The lectures that make the collection memorable, however, are not these...