Chapter I: Front Matter

[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