Professing English: A Life of Roy Daniells

Alexander D. Gregor is director of the Centre for Higher Education
Research and Development at the University of Manitoba and coeditor of
Postsecondary Education in Canada: The Cultural Agenda.

In her prologue, the author aptly characterizes her book as a
“cultural and institutional biography with a human face.” Roy
Daniells (1902–1979) was one of Canada’s most important intellectual
figures. His university career—a career intertwined with those of
colleagues and friends who included Northrop Frye and Earle
Birney—spanned much of the country and a half-century of history. He
played a critical role in the development of English studies in Canada,
and of the academic departments and scholarly organizations that gave
those studies shape and form. In those early years, the self-image of
the humanities professor was one of “secular priesthood,” as
compared to the more career-oriented professionals who would
characterize the university in the latter decades of the 20th century.
Daniells’s struggles with the mysteries of academic politics provide
important insights into the dynamics of the academic enterprise.

Djwa, a professor of English and former colleague of Daniells, is
uniquely placed to trace the intertwined threads of her subject’s
fascinating life. Her engaging and masterfully written work is highly
recommended for readers who are interested in the development of
Canada’s intellectual and cultural life in the 20th century.