Editor’s Statement

Editor's Statement For the short-term present, The Canadian Review of American Studies is viable, as they say, largely because of the generous support of President David Slater of York University. In both 1969 and 1970, the Review applied to the Canada Council for support. The first application, submitted before the first number of the Review had appeared, was rejected on the ground that the proposed journal boded to be too journalistic; the second application was turned down after the Council decided "that the Review does not come within the terms of the learned journal programme as at present defined." As editor of the Review, I do not quarrel with the Council's decision, even though I am disappointed by it. In my opinion, the contents of the first four numbers have been both satisfyingly various and engagingly "learned." The articles have been informative and well put together, and the review-essays have been challengingly perceptive. In the future, I trust, the quality of submissions to the journal will remain high, even as their number increases - and that the Review will more and more make a name for itself in Canada and the world at large. In the meantime, though, as we get ready to make our third submission to the Canada Councit I and the C.A.A.S. Executive Committee are thankful to President Slater for the breathing spell, and I have hopes that during this next year our institutional subscription list will lengthen considerably - thereby adding to the income of the Review. I ask, therefore , that C.A.A.S. members and other readers recommend the Review to their friends and colleagues in other institutions, so that they in tum may start forward requests for library subscriptions. Five dollars, multiplied a couple of hundred times, will go a long way toward making the Review self-supporting. In some ways, the dubious stance of the Canada Council vis-a-vis the Review is to be expected. The journal is avowedly interdisciplinary, and is sponsored by the Canadian Association for American Studies. What after all are (is) American Studies, and why should Canada foster them (it)? These are genuine questions, ones that should be asked, and ones THE CANADIAN REVIEW OF AMERICAN STUDIES VOL. II, NO. 2, FALL 1971 that both the Review and the Association intend to ask this next year. The Fall 1972 C.A.A.S. conference will have as its theme the place of American Studies in Canada, and the same general topic will be taken up in the Fall 1972 number of the Review. For that issue, there will be a guest editor, Joseph Gold of the Department of English of Waterloo University. All those wishing to deal with, or contend with, these questions are in~ vited to enter into early correspondence with Professor Gold. 68 ...