[Cover Illustration]
Highways _of_
Canadian Literature
_A Synoptic Introduction to the Literary_
_History of Canada (English)_
_from 1760 to 1924_
_By_ J. D. Logan
M.A. (Dalhousie), Ph.D. (Harvard), Hon. Litt. D. (Acadia).
Lecturer on Canadian Literature, Acadia University, Nova Scotia
_and_ Donald G. French
Honorary President Canadian Literature Club of Toronto.
Author of _The Appeal of Poetry_; Editor
_Standard Canadian Reciter_, Etc.
M c C L E L L A N D & S T E W A R T
P U B L I S H E R S - - T O R O N T O
Copyright, Canada, 1924
by McClelland and Stewart, Limited, Toronto
Printed in Canada
TO
COLONEL WILLIAM ERNEST THOMPSON, LL.B.
District Officer Commanding Military District
No. 6 During the World War,
A Governor of Dalhousie College,
for
The Gift of His Loyal and
Inexhaustible Friendship.
_There’s nothing worth the wear of winning,_
_Save laughter and the love of friends._
—_Hilaire Belloc._
Preface
_Highways of Canadian Literature_ provides teachers and students in
educational institutions and readers in general with a complete history
of the Canadian literature extant in the English language. In very
recent years Canadian universities and colleges have added to their
curricula systematic study of the verse and prose of the chief writers
born in or resident in the Dominion. Also, teachers in Canadian
academies and high schools, as occasion affords opportunity, inform
their pupils about the lives and work of Canadian authors. Further: as
expressive of the new and increasing interest in Canadian Literature,
Literary Clubs, Reading Clubs, and Reading Circles have been formed, and
constantly are being formed, to promote ‘community’ study of the
writings of Canadian men and women of letters.
Hitherto, however, those who wished to be informed on the literary
history of Canada and the status of Canadian Literature, had to depend
on Anthologies, summary annalistic Sketches, and biographical Compendia.
The earlier anthologies comprise verse either chronologically or
topically arranged, but some of them contain, in an Appendix,
biographical notes on the authors represented in the volumes. The later
anthologies, as, for instance, Garvin’s _Canadian Poets_, contain,
besides the ‘selections,’ biographical and critical introductions. These
anthologies, though comprehensive, informing and delightful
‘source-books,’ do not, by themselves, disclose the _development_ of
Canadian Literature. The annalistic sketches or compendia, on the other
hand, are too sketchy, too annalistic. They do not tell the story of the
development of Canadian Literature with any attempt at perspective or at
disclosing its social and spiritual origins.
There was, therefore, pressing need for a comprehensive Synoptic History
of Canadian Literature. Such a work would furnish the teacher, the
student, and the general reader with a ‘method’ of reading Canadian
Literature with philosophical insight or with historical and critical
perspective. It would distinguish certain ‘epochs’ and ‘movements’ in
the literary history of Canada, and make clear how Canadian poets and
prose writers are related to one another and have influenced one
another, and how, gradually, they expressed in literature the slowly
emerging consciousness of a national spirit and a national destiny in
the Dominion.
That is what _Highways of Canadian Literature_ attempts to do. In scope
it is a complete or comprehensive survey of literary ‘epochs’ and
‘movements’ in Canada, beginning with the Puritan Migration from the
American Colonies in 1760 and closing at the end of the first quarter of
the 20th century. In method it is both historical and critical. It
orientates the ‘backgrounds’ of Canadian Literature, traces the social
and spiritual origins of that literature, remarks special ‘influences,’
demarcates several ‘epochs’ and ‘movements,’ discusses the importance of
outstanding Canadian authors, and supplies critical estimates of
Canadian prose and poetry.
It is designed for the use of teachers and students in universities,
colleges, academies, seminaries, and high schools, and of general
readers. Together with suitable anthologies or selections it will
furnish teachers and students with adequate equipment for a systematic
study of Canadian Literature, and general readers and members of
literary clubs equally adequate equipment for ‘home’ or ‘club’ study of
the development of Canadian Literature.
The Chapters on Post-Confederation Fiction (Chapters XVI and
XVII—Novelists and Short Story Writers of the First Renaissance and
Chapter XXI—Fiction Writers of the Second Renaissance) were written,
expressly at my solicitation, by Mr. Donald G. French, whose wide and
intimate knowledge of the forms, technics, and history of Canadian
fiction is recognized throughout Canada. For many years he has been
assiduous, as an essayist and lecturer, in reviewing and promoting the
study of Canadian imaginative prose fiction, and his experience of many
years as reviewer, and later as literary editor for a book publishing
house, has given him special opportunities to study the history and
observe the evolution of Canadian imaginative prose. Moreover, since Mr.
French is also well versed in the forms, history, and technics of
Canadian poetry, and since he has a temperamental patience, which
engenders in him the ‘wise passiveness’ essential to the just critic, I
engaged for the book as a whole his taste and judgment, in regard to
treatment and style, and his knowledge of facts of Canadian literary
history. The text of the book is therefore enhanced in treatment and
style, as well as in critical justice, by Mr. French’s contribution, and
by his critical revision of the whole work.
I wish, here, specially to remark my ideal and aim in writing _Highways
of Canadian Literature_. It is, I believe, the duty of the literary
historian and critic to respect his subject and to present it under its
most significant and engaging aspects in order that he may win others to
equal respect for his subject. Canadian Literature is important at least
to Canadians; and, whatever be its comparative aesthetic and artistic
dignity, it is an integral part or branch of English Literature. This
book will justify itself if it compels Canadians to recognize the
importance of their own literature, and wins other peoples to a decent
respect for a literature which, while still in its adolescence, shows
evidences of attaining to independent and vigorous adult estate—in the
event of which Canadian literary creation, taste, and judgment will be
based, not on the work of British or of American masters of poetry and
imaginative prose, but on that of Canadian masters. Meanwhile, this book
aims to disclose to Canadians the social and spiritual importance of
their own literature and to determine its place or distinction in
English Literature—in short, to promote in Canada and abroad what may
aptly be called ‘the higher study’ of Canadian Literature.
To Mr. Newton MacTavish, M.A., Editor of _The Canadian Magazine_, Mr. R.
H. Hathaway, Mr. M. O. Hammond, Dr. Duncan Campbell Scott, Mr. John
Murray Gibbon, Mr. S. Morgan-Powell, Literary Editor of _The Montreal
Star_, Mr. John Garvin, B.A., Editor of _Canadian Poets_, _Canadian
Poems of the Great War_, etc., Dr. Ray Palmer Baker, author of _A
History of English-Canadian Literature to the Confederation_, and Mr. T.
G. Marquis, author of _English-Canadian Literature_, I am indebted for
advice, criticism, and much practical aid in preparing the text. To Miss
Annie Donohoe, Librarian of the Nova Scotia Legislative Library and Mrs.
Mary Kinley Ingraham, M.A., Librarian of Acadia University, I am
indebted for assistance in research; and to Miss Laura P. Carten, Editor
of The Children’s Page, Halifax Herald, for reading the ‘galley proofs’
of the text. To Colonel William Ernest Thompson, LL.B., Honorary
Secretary of the Board of Governors of Dalhousie University, my
indebtedness is great and is acknowledged in the Dedication to this
book.
J. D. Logan.
Acadia University, Wolfville, N.S.
Contents
PAGE
Dedication 3
Preface 5
Preliminary Survey 15
I. PRE-CONFEDERATION LITERATURE (1760-1887)
CHAPTER I
Social and Spiritual Bases 33
The Social and Spiritual Bases of Canadian Literature—The
Puritan and Loyalist Migrations—The Significance of the
Scots Migration—The Primacy of Nova Scotia in the Creative
Literature of Canada—Literary Species in Ontario and Quebec.