Autobiography of Oliver Goldsmith: A Chapter in Canada's Literary History

Bruce K. Filson was a freelance writer and critic residing in Chesterville, Ontario.

The title and subtitle are impressive: expectations arise as to the possibility that we CanLit fanatics have missed something monumental in our literary history.

Alas, no such surprise is in store. The actual “autobiography” is a short (30-page) description of the life of a fairly ordinary (though well-travelled) civil servant: Oliver Goldsmith (1794-1861). His middle-class and governmental existence, of which he spent but a small part in Canada (although he was born here), included, as it must for all of the same ilk, a bit of imitative scribbling and versifying. No, he was not the same Oliver Goldsmith who wrote She Stoops to Conquer but a grand-nephew of same. And no, he was certainly no poet. If this is a chapter in Canadian literary history, the story of Canadian literature is a weighty tome indeed.

There are copious notes and appendices that contribute to the reprinted text. Those who love literary “museyrooms” should enjoy the nicely printed book, but librarians arc advised to set it apart from Susanna Moodie and Louis Fréchette.