Sir Charles God Damn: The Life and Times of Sir Charles G.D. Roberts

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

Sir Charles G.D. Roberts was, not so very long ago, one of the greatest names in Canadian literature, and while his work was perhaps overrated in the days of his fame, it is now unjustly neglected. The man behind the poetry and the animal stories that captured worldwide attention deserves his place on the CanLit shelves.

The eye-catching title of this biography is merely the catch-phrase by which publishers kept the initials of Sir Charles G.D. (for George Douglas) straight in their minds; there was no apparent intent to offend. Married young, he proved to be a faithless and improvident husband, who neglected the needs of his family while living the life of a Bohemian in New York, Havana, and the capitals of Europe. He was a popular literary figure for decades, and at home in social circles. From 1927 to 1929, he served as national president of the Canadian Authors’ Association, and in 1935 he was knighted. This readable, sympathetic portrait of a man not always admirable, but certainly always interesting, is a valuable addition to Canadian literary history and biography.