On F.R. Scott: Essays on His Contributions to Law, Literature, and Politics

Alexander Craig is a freelance journalist in Lennoxville, Quebec.

This is a delightful book. It’s unusual to hold a conference on a living person, but Frank Scott himself is a far from usual man. (Frank Scott died in early 1985, after this review was written.) A number of Canadians who are themselves distinguished citizens of this country contributed long, thoughtful articles full of praise of Frank Scott and his achievements at the conference, which was held at Simon Fraser University in February 1981.

Scott, who was born in Quebec City on August 1, 1899, has achieved prominence in a remarkable number of fields. In politics, in constitutional law and legal education, in poetry and translation, and generally in thinking about, advocating, and pushing forward social progress, he has few equals in Canada in this century. As the late Senator Casgrain says in her tribute, Frank Scott, as one of those who drafted the Regina Manifesto, inspired her and others in the CCF to work to achieve the aims of that seminal document.

The 18 essays in this book make fascinating reading. There are, in addition, a lot of useful, at times tantalizing, footnotes, which will be a guide, even an inspiration perhaps, to further reading. There’s a fairly comprehensive index. All in all, this book will be rewarding reading for anyone who wants to know how and why present-day Canada, particularly its culture and its society, takes the form it does.