ECW’s Biographical Guide to Canadian Poets ed. by Robert Lecker, and: Canadian Writers And Their Works: Cumulated Index, Poetry Series by Donald W. McLeod, and: George Woodcock’s Introduction to Canadian Poetry by George Woodcock

Abstract

one wishing for more focussed essays on McGahern’s fictional fathers and their confusion of bonding and bondage, on the feminist implications of the portrayal of the clear-minded single woman, on the sensitive treatment of Pharisaism, and — dare I suggest it? — on McGahern’s onomastics, for his is a very intriguing science of naming. Finally, what of the oldfashioned writer in a postmodern context? What of the distinctness of McGahern in a world of yarn spinners that includes Isabel Allende and Roddy Doyle? ninian mellamphy / University of Western Ontario Robert Lecker, ed., et al., ECW ’s Biographical Guide to Canadian Poets (Toronto: ECW Press, 1993). 282. $25.00 paper. Donald W. McLeod, Canadian Writers And Their Works: Cumulated Index, Poetry Series (Toronto: ECW Press, 1993). 137. $20.00 paper. George Woodcock, George Woodcock’s Introduction to Canadian Poetry (Toronto: ECW Press, 1993). ix, 174. $25.00 paper. Anyone who has undertaken research in the field of Canadian literature has probably consulted at least one of the many texts published by Robert Lecker, Jack David, and associates at ECW Press. Their journal, Essays on Canadian Writing (out of McGill), has been an invaluable source of criticism and commentary for over two decades. One of ECW Press’s most widely used tools is the Canadian Writers and Their Works series. Despite the limitations imposed on it by its small format, the ECW essays provide useful, clear, and insightful introductory examinations of our major writers. They do not pretend to do more. Recently ECW has published a very handy one-volume cumulated index to the Poetry Series, which serves as a revision of the indexes that appeared with each of the original volumes. Donald W. McLeod, editor of this new index, has produced a straightforward, easyto -use, and complete reference text. To list only some of the categories indexed: names of authors and critics; titles of poems, stories, and books; and, where useful, titles of periodicals and magazines. ECW’s Biographical Guide to Canadian Poets is another one-volume refer­ ence text; it is obviously designed to assist in quick access to the biographical details of the authors in the established canon. No writer is covered in more than four or five pages, but a wide range of writers’ lives is presented. The Biographical Guide begins with Charles Heavysege (1816-1876), moves through the Confederation Poets, the early modernists (W.W.E. Ross, Knister , Scott, Smith, et al.), and the later modernists such as Layton and Dudek, 236 completing its tour with Gwendolyn MacEwen, Daphne Marlatt, Michael Ondaatje, and bp Nichol. All of the biographical pieces are informative, but there is a certain same­ ness to them and a dullness in the prose, perhaps because concision and format have ruled too vigorously. These biographies (one of the exceptions would be Ann Munton’s piece on Kroetsch) convey only weakly the cult of the personality in our recent literary history. The literary outlaws Cohen and Ondaatje, the irreverent George Bowering, and the tragic Gwendolyn MacEwen are de-mythologized when their lives are reduced to outline. ECW called on a very interesting and distinguished group of critics to au­ thor these biographies. But I do not hear the sort of counterpoint I expected among such distinctive voices. Many of the sketches are nevertheless well done. Susan Gingell, for example, resists the temptation to “list” the bio­ graphical facts; instead she evokes a sense of the privilege that turned itself into the late Robert Finch’s aesthetic. A life as rich and full as P.K. Page’s presents the critic/biographer with a challenging assignment, but John Or­ ange very skilfully articulates the variety and complexity of Page’s artistic achievements in the short space allowed him. David Kent shows us in his essay on Margaret Avison how an apparently straightforward life contains enough twists and turns to produce Avison’s very challenging poetics. Words often fail critics when it comes to her evangelical faith, but Kent invokes a phrase that is the most appropriate I have ever heard in this matter: he calls Avison’s “a full-bodied Christianity” (151-52). This ability to call a thing by the right name is rare...