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.

CHAPTER II
Incidental Pioneer Literature 44
The Incidental Pre-Confederation Literature of
Canada—Alexander Henry’s Travels—Mrs. Brooke’s Novels—Mrs.
Jameson’s Nature-Studies—The Émigré Pre-Confederation
Literature of Canada—Mrs. Susanna Moodie—Adam Kidd—John
Reade—George Murray—Archibald McLachlan—William Wye Smith
and Isabella Crawford.

CHAPTER III
Joseph Howe 55
The Nativistic Literature of Canada—Joseph Howe as Founder
of the Independent Prose, Creative Journalism, Political
Literature, Literary and Forensic Oratory—as Patriotic,
Descriptive, and Humorous Poet—and as the Discoverer and
Sponsor of Thomas Chandler Haliburton.

CHAPTER IV
Thomas Chandler Haliburton 63
The Nativistic Literature of Canada—Thomas Chandler
Haliburton—First Systematic Humorist of the Anglo-Saxon
peoples—Creator of a New Type of Satiric Humor and Comic
Characterization.

II. POST-CONFEDERATION LITERATURE
(1887-1924)

_A. The First Renaissance_

CHAPTER V
Romance and Poetry 89
The Nativistic Literature of Canada—The Historical
Romancers—John Richardson—Rosanna Mullins—and Others. The
Poets—Goldsmith—Sangster—Mair.

CHAPTER VI
The Systematic School 105
The First Renaissance in Canadian Literature—The Systematic
School and Period—Roberts and his Colleagues.

CHAPTER VII
Charles G. D. Roberts 110
Roberts Sponsor to Lampman—Literary Father of Bliss
Carman—Master of Verse Technique—Forms of his Verse, and its
Qualities.

CHAPTER VIII
Archibald Lampman 127
An Interpreter of the Essential Spirit of Canada—Study of
Lampman’s ‘Sapphics’—Power of Humanizing Nature—Excellence
of his Sonnets—Consummate Artist of Natural Beauty.

CHAPTER IX
Bliss Carman 139
As a World-Poet—Creative Melodist—Periods of his
Poetry—Singing Quality and its Method—Lyrist of the Sea and
of Love—Treatment of Nature.

CHAPTER X
Duncan Campbell Scott 159
Influences on his Work—Old World Culture—Austere
Intellectualism—Music and Painting—Association with
Lampman—Scott, Campbell, and Lampman compared—Influence of
English poets—Technical Excellences—Revelation of the Indian
Heart—Mystical Symbolism.

CHAPTER XI
Wilfrid Campbell 184
As an Objective Nature Painter—Humanized Substance of his
Verse—Patriotism and Brotherhood—Dramatic Monody—Poetical
Tragedies and Dramas.

CHAPTER XII
Pauline Johnson 195
Her Ancestry and its Influences—Literary and Musical
Qualities of Work—Stages of Development in Spiritual
Vision—Picturesque Color Verse.

CHAPTER XIII
Parker and Scott, F. G. 210
Parker as a Sonneteer of Spiritual Love—Origin and Theme of
a Lover’s Diary—Musical and Colorful Lyrical Verse—Scott’s
Poetry a Reflection of his Personality—Distinguished as the
‘Poet of the Spirit’—Chief Qualities of his Poetry.

CHAPTER XIV
Minor Poets 219
The Term ‘Minor’ Defined—Ethelwyn Wetherald—Jean
Blewett—Francis Sherman—A. E. S. Smythe—S. Frances
Harrison—Arthur Stringer—Peter McArthur—Isabel Ecclestone
Mackay.

CHAPTER XV
Elegiac Monodists 229
The Elegiac Monodists of Canada—Charles G. D. Roberts—Bliss
Carman—Wilfred Campbell—Duncan Campbell Scott—William
Marshall—James De Mille.

CHAPTER XVI
Novelists 241
The Fictionists of the Systematic School—The Historical
Romancers—Lighthall—Saunders—Parker—Marquis—Maclennan and
McIlwraith—Agnes C. Laut—Wilfred Campbell—Charles G. D.
Roberts—The Romancers of Animal Psychology—Thompson
Seton—Roberts—Saunders—Fraser—The Evangelical
Romancers—Ralph Connor—R. E. Knowles.

CHAPTER XVII
Short Story Writers 258
The Short Story Fictionists of the Systematic School—E. W.
Thomson—Duncan Campbell Scott—Charles G. D. Roberts—Gilbert
Parker—Ernest Thompson Seton—W. A. Fraser.

_B. The New Genre_

CHAPTER XVIII
William Henry Drummond 265
The New Canadian Genre of Idyllic Poetry—William Henry
Drummond, Interpreter of the Habitant—Poet of Social
Democracy in Canada.

_C. The Decadent Interim_

CHAPTER XIX
The Vaudeville School 271
The Decadent Interim in Canadian Literature—The Vaudeville
School of Poets—Robert W. Service, Robert J. C. Stead, and
Others.

_D. The Second Renaissance_

CHAPTER XX
The Restoration Period 280
The Restoration or Second Renaissance Period in Canadian
Literature—New Forms, Themes, and Social Ideals—The
Poets—Marjorie Pickthall—Robert Norwood—Katherine Hale—and
Others.

CHAPTER XXI
Fiction Writers 298
The Community Novel—Montgomery—Keith—McClung—Le Rossignol.
Institutional Fiction—Packard—Sullivan—Duncan—Wallace and
Others. Realistic Romance—Service—Cody—Stead, etc.
Historical Fiction—Snider—Anison
North—Teskey—McKishnie—Cooney. Imaginative
Fiction—Pickthall—Mackay. Miscellaneous
Types—McKishnie—Sullivan—Hémon—Sime. The New
Realism—Salverson—de la Roche Cornell, etc.

CHAPTER XXII
The Poetic Dramatists 314
The Poetic Dramatists of the Second Renaissance—Arthur
Stringer—Robert Norwood—Marjorie Pickthall, and Others.

CHAPTER XXIII
Humorists 322
The Humorists of Canada:
Pre-Confederation—Haliburton—Howe—De
Mille—Duvar—Post-Confederation—Lanigan—Cotes—Drummond—Ham:
New School—Leacock—Donovan—Davis—MacTavish—McArthur—Hodgins.

CHAPTER XXIV
National Stage Drama 333
The Rise of Native and National Realistic Stage Drama in
Canada: The Little Theatre and the Work of Carroll Aikins
and Merrill Denison.

III. SPECIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS (1760-1924)

CHAPTER XXV
The War Poetry of Canada 339
Mrs. Moodie—Annie Rothwell Christie—Isabella Valancy
Crawford—John McCrae—Canadian Poems of the Great War.

CHAPTER XXVI
Hymn Writers 354
The Hymn Writers of
Canada—Alline—Clelland—Scriven—Murray—Scott—Rand—Dewart—Walk
er—and Others.

CHAPTER XXVII
Literary Criticism 362
Literary Criticism in Canada—Schools, Aims, Methods, and
Defects—New Synoptic Method Applied to Poetry of Overseas
Dominions.

CHAPTER XXVIII
Essayists and Color Writers 374
The Essayists and Color Writers of
Canada—Carman—MacMechan—Blake—Katherine
Hale—King—Deacon—Leacock.

CHAPTER XXIX
Anthologies 380
Canadian Birthday Book (Seranus)—Dewart’s Selections from
Canadian Poets—Lighthall’s ‘Songs of the Great
Dominion’—Oxford Book of Canadian Verse—Garvin’s Canadian
Poets, etc.

CHAPTER XXX
Canadian Journalism 388
Canadian Journalism in Relation to Permanent Canadian
Literature; A Summary Critical History of the Chief Canadian
Newspapers and Magazines.