Profiles in Canadian Literature 7

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

This is another volume in a useful series on Canadian authors. In this
collection, the writers are all English Canadians, except for Josef
Skvorecky, the distinguished Czech immigrant novelist. Each essay
provides an introductory discussion of the author’s work and
achievements; a brief but helpful bibliography of works by and about the
author; and a selection of comments by and about the author.

Authors covered range from 19th-century writers like Charles Heavysege
and Charles G.D. Roberts to modern figures like P.K. Page, Jane Rule,
Clark Blaise, Anne Wilkinson, and Irving Layton, and to popular writers
like Lucy Maud Montgomery, Robert Service, Farley Mowat, and Pierre
Berton. It is good to see an essay on the neglected New Provinces poet
Robert Finch, and Ian McLaren contributes a good introduction to the
explorer George Back. Joyce Marshall, a fiction writer who is often
overlooked, is covered very well by Ken McLean, and the revival of
interest in Anne Wilkinson will be boosted by Joan Coldwell’s study of
her work. The essays are generally of a high standard, though Bruce
Meyer’s attempt to revive Frank Prewett’s writing shows a weak grasp
of the English literary milieu in which Prewett worked, and Wilfrid
Cude’s vendetta against the academy hampers his look at Mowat.

This is not a book specifically for the common reader, though it is
certainly interesting. It will be useful for teachers and students, and
should be in all library reference sections.