Canadian Writers and Their Works: Poetry Series, Vol. 7

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
author of Calling Texas.

Readers of modern Canadian poetry will find these brief studies of
Milton Acorn, Alden Nowlan, Al Purdy, James Reaney, and Phyllis Webb
helpful both as introductions and as guides to further reading. Ed
Jewinski, a poet himself, provides a good, balanced discussion of the
idiosyncratic Acorn. Michael Oliver is perhaps too partial to Nowlan,
whose poetry was remarkably uneven. Oliver’s knowledge of Nowlan’s
maritime background is superb, however, and he is also aware of
Nowlan’s universality. Louis K. MacKendrick struggles to encompass
Purdy’s high output in a 50-page study and generally succeeds. Richard
Stingle’s study of Reaney makes some exacting judgments of a
kaleidoscopic author and is especially good on the plays, though the
study ends rather abruptly. John Hulcoop has edited Webb’s work; his
intimacy with it—and with her manuscripts—makes his study
particularly engaging, if a bit partisan.

The format of the series—this volume collects a number of
monographs—is confining. Each study is about 50 pages long, and is
divided into “Biography,” “Tradition and Milieu,” “Critical
Overview and Context,” “Works,” and “Selected Bibliography.”
The poets seem somewhat homogenized by such a rigid format, but readers
will be able to find out what they need to know quite efficiently with
these divisions. This series is not the place to look for startling or
innovative views of writers, but it is reliable and serves its
introductory purpose well.