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ECW'S BIOGRAPHICAL GUIDE TO CANADIAN POETS
Edited by Robert Lecker, Jack David and Ellen Quiqley
Edited by Robert Lecker, Jack David and Ellen Quiqley
Reviewed by Alan Thomas
Volume 22 Number 4
The first and easiest connection that a young reader can make with literature, outside the contents, of the book, may well be the life of the author. Recognition that a story, or poem is a created work and has an author is an act of critical intelligence that establishes a primary and necessary stage for later critical thinking. Attention to authors has been deplored in the literature departments of our universities for at least a generation. But that attitude has not spread into the schools, where young readers insistently ask questions about the author. ECW has very sensibly recognized this demand and serves it here in these twin volumes. The biographies run about 1,000 to 2,000 words and are cleanly laid out and service able, with the authors portrayed in head-and-shoulders drawings. The writers of these biographies are often the top scholars in the field--Linda Hutcheon on Leonard Cohen, Peter Buitenhuis on E.J. Pratt--and so the calibre of writing and commentary is high. Perhaps too great a measure is given to some early, obscure writers (there are no authors born after the 1940s), and questions of selection sharpen as the contemporary scene is approached: Dave Godfrey and John Metcalf have evidently been included as hereos of Canadian publishing; Matt Cohen is in, while David Adams Richards is out. Yet let us not carp; these are relatively inexpensive and highly useful reference works for junior and high schools. Alan Thomas teaches literature at Scarborough College, University of Toronto, in Toronto, Ontario
The materials in this archive are copyright © The Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission Copyright information for reviewers
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