An Interview with Clarence Tracy

Abstract

A N I N T E R V I E W W I T H C L A R E N C E T R A C Y G.D. KILLAM University of Guelph (Clarence Tracy and I talked about his long career in university teaching in his home at Port Maitland in Nova Scotia. All of the friends and former colleagues whose words appear in this profile mention the comfortable, relaxed, easy hospitality of the Tracy home whether in Fredericton, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Wolfville, or Port Maitland. Such it was on the day we had together (one of many). This year marks the twenty-first anniversary of the founding of acute, with which Clarence Tracy was involved. The advantages to our profession of the creation of the Association are plain enough. What was it like before acute came into being? I asked Clarence: killam "Could you comment on the state of affairs in our profession before the founding of acu te, and on the aims, objectives, and achievements of acute since its founding twenty-one years ago?" tracy "I'm in a good position because I'm old enough to remember vividly what that state was, having taught for twenty years before acute was founded, and also because I spent most of that twenty years in the West in a state of isolation from colleagues who were interested in the same things I was. I was about the only person between Toronto and Vancouver who was interested in the eighteenth century and with salaries what they were in those days, travel was difficult; I never saw anybody who was interested in the eighteenth century, except on rare accidental occasions. There was little or no money for subsidizing travel or research. In that twenty years I probably got $500.00 altogether for secretarial help in scholarly work and for buying a few films and that kind of thing. So the foundation of acute for me, at any rate, primarily marked the establishment of a scholarly community to which one could belong, and the annual meetings not only provided interesting papers but even more than that an opportunity to meet and talk with one's colleagues and to turn over ideas." killam " I take it that your colleagues in the profession shared your feelings about this lack of com m unity?" tracy "Oh, I think so. Of course, people in the bigger centres like Toronto were closer to their American colleagues and were rather better paid and so got around a little better than I was able to do. I remember Mr Woodhouse En g lish Studies in Ca n ad a, iv , 2, Summer 1978 1 3 0 expressing the view on more than one occasion that the Canadian scholarly community simply had no way of getting together." killam "So you think that the project has been a continuing fruitful thing?" tracy "I think that it's been a very good thing. I sometimes feel that we now have too many learned societies and too many meetings. Many a good thing is apt to go a little too far; but on the whole if it is a fault, it is very much on virtue's side." killam "Do the same sorts of comments apply then to the Humanities Associa­ tion? Or is it different there?" tracy "The Humanities Association is earlier than acu te. But I don't think it has succeeded quite so well, primarily because its objectives were more vast and somewhat nebulous. Its aim was to bring together all academic disciplines and, in metaphorical terms, the clergy and the laity, ie, the professionals and the non-professionals. To some extent it has succeeded but only to a limited one, because it's been very difficult to get the professional scholars in some centres to interest the laity, the general public. They tend to treat the branch as a kind of professional commonroom where they can get together to discuss their own problems away from the non-academics. The non-academics, on the other hand, have been reluctant to join because they felt inferior. When I was in the Saskatoon branch we made great efforts to bring in high...