Written in Stone: A Kingston Reader

David E. Kemp is chair of the Drama Department at Queen’s University
and author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

This literary collection features writers who have in some way recorded
the life of Kingston, which stands where the St. Lawrence River and Lake
Ontario meet. Robertson Davies (whose Salterton novels were set in
Kingston) once observed that things happen where watercourses join, and
this is certainly true of Kingston, a city that was founded with
considerable pomp and cunning in 1673 by a French count, captured and
burned in 1758 by a British colonel, and refounded in 1783. For two
heady years, Kingston was the capital of Canada. Serene in its beauty,
its legacy of stone and brick, the city snoozed through much of the 19th
and early 20th centuries, acquiring a reputation for stuffiness.
Canada’s first prime minister lived and worked there, and it is home
to one of the country’s oldest universities.

Written in Stone seeks to convey the essence of the place. Divided into
three sections—“First Impressions,” “Symphony in Stone,” and
“Neighbours”—the book features a remarkable array of authors. It
ranges from the 17th century, with Samuel de Champlain and Jean le
Chasseur; through such luminaries as Charles Dickens, Walt Whitman, and
Rupert Brooke; and comes full circle with such fine modern writers as
Kate Stearns, Judith Thompson, and Matt Cohen.

While this collection will probably be mostly enjoyed by those who live
within spitting distance of the university, like all discerning readers
dealing with specific locales it has a universality that will prove
attractive to those who have never been to Kingston’s “old
stones.” It might even inspire them to make a visit.